Determining The Hydration Energetics On Carbon-Supported Ru Catalysts: An Adsorption Calorimetry And Density Functional Theory Study

Fundamental knowledge on the energetics at the interface between a water layer and a metal catalyst is essential so as to understand the roles that water can play in the synthesis, activation, and regeneration of noble metalbased catalysts. Here, we report the direct measurement of the enthalpy of water adsorption (?hads) on activated carbon (C) and activated C-supported ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles, which is a promising catalyst as applied to the hydrogenation/hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of oxygenates (phenolics, aldehydes, etc.). Specifically, the near-zero coverage enthalpy of water adsorption on a C-supported Ru catalyst is -75.3 ? 0.4 kJ/(mol water), suggesting favorable water?metal binding. This is much more exothermic than that on C, which has an enthalpy of adsorption of -50.3 ? 1.3 kJ/(mol water). Despite the favorable initial binding, the magnitudes of enthalpies of water condensation on C and Ru-C indicate that overall, their surfaces are both hydrophobic. Moreover, the experimentally-measured near-zero coverage water adsorption enthalpy at the Ru sites is in very good agreement with our density functional theory based calculations. At low coverages, we obtain a water binding energy of -61.7 kJ/(mol water), which increases to -78.1 kJ/(mol water) at saturation. Complementary results are also obtained from a thermal analysis, which employed a thermogravimetric analysis?mass spectrometry (TG-MS), a spectroscopic investigation using ex situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), and a morphological evaluation with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We point out that in carbon-supported metal catalysts, such as Ru-C, a strong hydration at near-zero coverage and relative weak water-surface interactions occur upon saturation. Such heterogeneity is essential and crucial for catalytic hydrogenation/HDO reactions that involve balanced interactions among the water-rich reactant mixture and nonpolar organic products.