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Abstract:
Water is crucial in space missions, and developing lightweight, high-performing catalysts for water recycling is essential. Extensive research on nanosized and even single-atom catalysts supported on oxides has been conducted for this purpose. However, the oxide supports usually constitute over 90% of the total mass, so the catalysts are heavy. Here, we fabricated a light, fibrous RuO2 nanostructured textile consisting solely of RuO2 nanoparticles (NPs), which did not require an oxide support, and evaluated it in the Sabatier reaction for water recycling. Remarkably, this support-free catalyst textile displayed an unprecedented catalytic mass activity (~60 mmolCH4 h-1 gcat-1 at 160 °C), which was approximately 20 times higher than that of a previously reported Ru/TiO2 catalyst, and the highest TOF (0.021 s-1 at 160 °C). Although well-known catalyst degradation was observed during prolonged testing, the performance of the textile remained exceptional even after 46 hours of continuous operation. A detailed surface analysis unveiled phenomena such as RuO2 reduction, nanoparticle growth, surface smoothing, and Ru loss during the reaction, contributing to degradation. We expect that addressing these intrinsic and thermodynamically driven phenomena will improve activity and durability.
