Catalytic Reaction Triggered by Magnetic Induction Heating Mechanistically Distinguishes Itself from the Standard Thermal Reaction

Abstract

As a recent advancement in reaction engineering, magnetic induction heating (MIH) is utilized to initiate the intended reactions by enabling the self-heating of the ferromagnetic catalyst particles. While MIH can be energy-efficient and industrially scalable, its full potential has been underappreciated in catalysis because of the perception that MIH is merely an alternative heating approach. Unexpectedly, we show that the MIH-triggered reaction could go beyond standard thermal catalysis. Specifically, by probing the representative Pt/Fe3O4 catalysts with CO oxidation in both thermal and MIH modes with consistent temperature profiles and catalyst structures, we found that the MIH mode boosts the reactivity more than 25 times by modifying Pt–FeOx interfacial synergies and promoting facile oxidation of the adsorbed carbonyl species by atomic oxygen. As we preliminarily observed, this beneficial MIH catalysis can be translational to other thermal reactions, potentially paving the way to launch MIH catalysis as a distinct reaction category.