Yolk@Shell FeMn@Hollow HZSM-5 Nanoreactor for Directly Converting Syngas to Aromatics

Even though many studies have been done in the direct transformation of syngas to aromatics, developing catalysts to achieve high space time yield (STY) for aromatics (over 1.0 g·gFe–1·h–1) remains a bottleneck of this process. Herein, we designed a type of catalyst with FeMn nanoparticles as the yolk and hollow HZSM-5 zeolite as the shell, which displayed a surprisingly high aromatics STY of 1.9 g·gFe–1·h–1, outperforming previously reported catalytic systems significantly. The enhanced catalytic performance was attributed to the spatially and temporally ordered effect of the yolk@shell structure, which fully exploited the shape-selective effect and aromatization ability of HZSM-5 zeolite. The elemental composition of the yolk, the hollow structure combined with mesoporous channels, as well as the acidity of the nanoreactor could be tuned rightly, which played significant roles in enhancing the production of aromatics and suppressing the coke deposition. These findings provided a strategy for constructing highly efficient multifunctional catalysts, which could be potentially applied to other tandem catalysis systems.