(119d) Deuterium Labeled Ethanol Tracer Studies On Iron Catalyzed Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

The Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FT) can be briefly defined as the catalytic conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen to hydrocarbon products. It has long been known that olefins and alcohols can act as a chain initiator under normal FT synthesis conditions. FT synthesis using C₂ monomer has been noted by a number of workers and have coined different surface species including vinyl (CH₂=CH-_(ad)) and vinylidene (CH₂=C=_(ad)). The pioneering works in this field were performed by Emmett and coworkers. 14C labelled ethanol (1.5 %) was added to the syngas feed to an iron catalyzed FT reaction at 508 K and 1 atm, using a plug-flow reactor and concluded that ethanol or the adsorption complex derived from the ethanol could primarily act as a chain initiator. In this study, partially deuterated ethanol (CD₃CD₂OH and CD₃CH₂OH) were used as a tracer to study the iron catalyzed Fischer-tropsch mechanism at different synthesis conditions. An attempt has been made to interpret the surface intermediates formed by added d-ethanol from the analysis of FT hydrocarbon products.