CO Hydrogenation on Cobalt‐Based Catalysts: Tin Poisoning Unravels CO in Hollow Sites as a Main Surface Intermediate

Site poisoning is a powerful method to unravel the nature of active sites or reaction intermediates. The nature of the intermediates involved in the hydrogenation of CO was unraveled by poisoning alumina‐supported cobalt catalysts with various concentrations of tin. The rate of formation of the main reaction products (methane and propylene) was found to be proportional to the concentration of multi‐bonded CO, likely located in hollow sites. The specific rate of decomposition of these species was sufficient to account for the formation of the main products. These hollow‐CO are proposed to be main reaction intermediates in the hydrogenation of CO under the reaction conditions used here, while linear CO are mostly spectators.