Aqueous-phase Fischer-Tropsch synthesis with a ruthenium nanocluster catalyst.

Introduction Hydrogenation of carbon monoxide to produce hydrocarbons, normally called Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (F-T synthesis), is one of the most important hydrogenation reactions due to its potential for the intermediate production of hydrocarbon fuels in the “postpetroleum” era. The reaction is favored at low-temperature and therefore reducing the particle size of the catalyst to several nanometers, while maintaining their three-dimensional freedom, may in principle significantly increase the catalytic activity as well as decrease the working temperatures for the process. It has been reported that soluble nanoclusters in ionic liquids or liquid water exhibit excellent catalytic performance in the hydrogenation of various organic substrates and also are comparatively green in nature. As far as we are aware, aqueous phase FT synthesis has not been reported to date but it has been shown that water steam promotes the reaction (see entry 8 in Table 1). [2] Here we report our first steps in the development of an aqueous-phase process for hydrogenation of carbon monoxide using a ruthenium nanocluster catalyst (Scheme 1).