Enhanced Catalytic Activity of Boron Nitride Nanotubes by Encapsulation of Nickel Wire Toward O2 Activation and CO Oxidation: A Theoretical Study

Frontiers in Chemical Engineering

卷:3

Haifeng Lv¹  Jiajia Cai²  Keke Mao²  Xiuling Li³ 

[1]School of Chemistry and Materials Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

[2]|School of Energy and Environment Science, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, China

[3]|School of Physical Science and Technology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China

关键词: boron nitride nanotubes;    DFT;    CO oxidation;    O2 activation;    catalytic activity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fceng.2021.807510

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Perfect boron nitride (BN) nanotubes are chemically inert, and hardly considered as catalysts. Nevertheless, metal wire encapsulated BN nanotubes show extraordinarily high chemical activity. We report nickel (Ni) nanowire encapsulated BN(8.0) and BN(9.0) nanotubes toward O2 activation and CO oxidization on the basis of first-principles calculations. Our results suggest that Ni wire encapsulated BN(8.0) and BN(9.0) nanotubes can easily adsorb and activate O2 molecules to form peroxo or superoxo species exothermically. Meanwhile, superoxo species are ready to react with CO molecules forming OCOO intermediate state and finally yielding CO2 molecules. Meanwhile, the rate-limiting step barrier is only 0.637 eV, implying excellent performance for CO oxidation on Ni nanowire encapsulated BN nanotubes. Furthermore, encapsulation of nickel wire improves the catalytic activity of BN nanotubes by facilitating electron transfer from Ni wire to BN nanotubes, which facilitates the adsorption of highly electronegative O2 molecules and subsequent CO oxidation. This study provides a practical and efficient strategy for activating O2 on a metal encapsulated BN nanotube toward CO oxidation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown