Production of alcohols through plasma-catalytic dry reforming of methane over the interface of metal oxides

The plasma-catalytic dry reforming of methane (DRM) emerges as a promising strategy for concurrently mitigating carbon emissions and producing renewable energy resources. The conventional plasma-catalytic DRM approaches, nonetheless, often result in the production of lower-value syngas and exhibit limited selectivity towards higher-value liquid products, particularly alcohols. Here we developed a plasma-catalytic DRM system integrated with the cobalt-supported γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts (CoO_x/Al₂O₃) for enhancing the synthesized alcohol selectivity. Investigations into various metal-supported catalysts, cobalt loadings, cobalt oxidation states and calcination temperatures indicated that a 5 % cobalt-loaded catalyst calcined at 500 ℃ could achieve an optimized alcohol selectivity of 37.2 %, accounting for 90.7 % of the oxygenates. Comparative analyses between physically mixed CoO_x-Al₂O₃ catalysts and chemically mixed CoO_x/Al₂O₃, complemented by in situ plasma-coupled Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations, highlighted the critical influence of oxide-oxide interactions in enhancing alcohol yield. These findings highlight the importance of oxide catalysts in efficient alcohol production in plasma-catalytic DRM, offering a sustainable approach that balances environmental benefits with the generation of valuable energy resources.