An operando IR study was carried out to investigate the loss of selectivity to higher hydrocarbons observed over cobalt-based Fischer-Tropsch catalysts when CO is replaced with CO₂. Our data unambiguously show that the structure and oxidation state of the surface of metallic cobalt remains the same whether CO₂ or CO are cofed with H₂. The selectivity to CH₄ appears to increase monotonously with decreasing surface coverage of adsorbed CO. The switch from Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to methanation using CO₂-rich feeds over metallic cobalt can therefore be assigned to surface coverage effects only, assuming that most, if not all, hydrocarbons products are formed on metallic cobalt.

_{进行了操作 IR 研究，以研究当 CO 被 CO 2}取代时，在钴基费托催化剂上观察到的对高级烃的选择性损失。我们的数据清楚地表明，无论CO ₂或CO 是否与H ₂共存，金属钴表面的结构和氧化态保持不变。_{对 CH 4}的选择性似乎随着吸附 CO 的表面覆盖率的降低而单调增加。因此，从费托合成到使用富含 CO ₂的进料而不是金属钴的甲烷化的转变只能归因于表面覆盖效应，假设大多数情况下，如果并非全部，碳氢化合物产品都是在金属钴上形成的。