Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory
As shown in the schematic, carbon dioxide and propane can react on the iron-nickel (FeNi) catalyst to form propylene (left) or on the platinum-nickel (PtNi) catalyst to form syngas (right). In the case of FeNi, an oxide layer of FeO/Ni that forms during the reaction encourages C-H bond breaking. By contrast, the PtNi catalyst has no oxide phase. Color key: carbon = black, oxygen = red, hydrogen = purple, nickel = green, iron = brown, platinum = blue).