Fig. 3: Inhibiting the oxidation of iron carbide by water via surface hydrophobization.

a–c Heatmap (a), in situ XRD patterns (b), and the relative intensity between the diffraction peak of Fe5C2 at 44.2° and the diffraction peak of Fe3O4 at 35.4° (c) of the Fe@Mn@0.2Si catalyst when exposing to the CO + H2O atmosphere at 320 °C. d–f Heatmap (d), in situ XRD patterns (e), and the relative intensity between the diffraction peak of Fe5C2 at 44.2° and the diffraction peak of Fe3O4 at 35.4° (f) of the Fe@Mn@0.2Si-c catalyst when exposing to the CO + H2O atmosphere at 320 °C.