First comparison of catalytic CO reduction to CO over molybdenum carbide, nitride and phosphide catalysts

Carbonization, nitridation and phosphorization of Mo/CNT precursors can lead to the formation of β-Mo 2 C, a γ-Mo 2 N/β-Mo 2 C mixture and MoP, respectively, on the CNT support. It was proposed that the γ-Mo 2 N phase showed better reverse water gas shift (RWGS) performance than the β-Mo 2 C and MoP phases, which can be due to its higher oxophilicity and weaker affinity with CO. Noticeably, this nitrided Mo/CNT catalyst showed comparable RWGS performance to bimetallic Cu/β-Mo 2 C (recently known to be the most excellent non-noble metal catalyst for the RWGS). The nitrided Mo/CNT catalyst can show comparable reverse water gas shift (RWGS) performance to the bimetallic Cu/β-Mo 2 C catalyst under similar conditions.