Intermetallic-Based Materials for Methane Dry Reforming

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Marc Armbrüster
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 570349455

The dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a viable heterogeneously catalyzed reaction to convert two harmful greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane into syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) that can be further used to produce synthetic fuels. Much effort has been placed into the development of catalyst materials to overcome the coking and sintering limitations of the archetypical Ni-based catalysts. Several material classes have been screened and a common denominator of all systems is the highly dynamic nature of the catalytically active sites that must enable a full reversible methane and carbon dioxide activation-and-release cycle. The reactivity of carbon, due to reactant activation, is therefore crucial to obtain a highly active material. Intermetallic compound-based materials have evolved as particular promising catalyst materials in a variety of reactions due to their outstanding structural and electronic properties, including dry reforming of methane. A leading theme underscoring the highly dynamic nature is the use of intermetallic compounds as precursor materials to in situ form corresponding metal-oxide systems in either the dry reforming mixture or by pre-reduction in hydrogen. These metal-oxide systems then serve as the connector to other more common dry reforming catalysts. This steered decomposition pathway has been developed mostly on Zr-based intermetallic compounds. As such, studies on intermetallic materials mostly rely on materials that can be decomposed, but studies on stable intermetallic compounds are virtually non-existent. To fill this knowledge gap, the project provides a systematic assessment of the catalytic properties of intermetallic compounds in the dry reforming of methane. By comparing a set of cobalt-based intermetallic compounds in the cobalt-antimony, cobalt-gallium and cobalt-tungsten phase diagram, we span the entire stability region of DRM-stable (cobalt-antimony), DRM-unstable (cobalt-gallium, formation of a cobalt-gallium oxide interface) and carbide-forming (cobalt-tungsten) intermetallic compounds. This allows studying and comparing the intrinsic DRM properties of stable intermetallic compounds to those of a metal-oxide composite resulting from in situ decomposition and the reactivity of carbon within the same set of intermetallic compounds using a common leading element. Consequently, this approach enables addressing the teamwork between the different catalytically active components of intermetallic compounds and facilitates the establishment of reliable structure-property relationships in the dry reforming of methane.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria
• Partner Organisation: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
• Cooperation Partner: Privatdozent Dr. Simon Penner