Synergetic interaction between neighbouring platinum monomers in CO₂ hydrogenation

Exploring the interaction between two neighbouring monomers has great potential to significantly raise the performance and deepen the mechanistic understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, we demonstrate that the synergetic interaction between neighbouring Pt monomers on MoS₂ greatly enhanced the CO₂ hydrogenation catalytic activity and reduced the activation energy relative to isolated monomers. Neighbouring Pt monomers were achieved by increasing the Pt mass loading up to 7.5% while maintaining the atomic dispersion of Pt. Mechanistic studies reveal that neighbouring Pt monomers not only worked in synergy to vary the reaction barrier, but also underwent distinct reaction paths compared with isolated monomers. Isolated Pt monomers favour the conversion of CO₂ into methanol without the formation of formic acid, whereas CO₂ is hydrogenated stepwise into formic acid and methanol for neighbouring Pt monomers. The discovery of the synergetic interaction between neighbouring monomers may create a new path for manipulating catalytic properties.