Facile synthesis of Co-based catalysts with high dispersion via an eco-friendly strategy

The supported metal catalyst featuring highly dispersed active species poses a challenge for industrial catalysts, even at high loadings. Herein, highly dispersed supported cobalt catalysts were prepared using an impregnation and vacuum-heating strategy. During the vacuum-heating process, coordinated H₂O was removed, restricting the formation of metal-bound OH species and their aggregation, yielding small metal oxide species. The synthesized catalyst shows high cobalt time yield and improved C₅₊ selectivity compared to the catalyst prepared by the traditional impregnation-calcination method. It revealed that more accessible active sites and strong metal-support interaction contributed to superior FTS performance. This study provides a simple, efficient way to prepare supported metal catalysts with high dispersion at an industrial scale.