V. Alvarado-González, V.A. Escobar-Barrios
Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica,
Mexico
Keywords: carbon supported CeO2, carbon-based support, water gas shift
Summary:
The production of Hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe, has attracted the attention of research in the last decades since is a clean, highly efficient, and sustainable energy source. This work focus on the synthesis of a carbon supported ceria catalyst and its characterization for H2 generation from water dissociation via water gas shift reaction (WGSR). The synthesis of the supported catalyst was carried out by the modification of the polyol method, with the simultaneous synthesis and deposition of the ceria particles on the carbon-based support, obtaining a supported catalyst in a one-step process. Diverse characterization techniques were used to obtain the structural-crystalline (SEM, Raman and XRD), textural (N2 and CO2 physisorption), elemental (XPS and SEM-EDS) and thermal-reactive (TGA-DSC, TPR and TPD of NH3 and CO2) properties of the composite. The catalytic performance evaluation of the material was carried out by running the WGSR on a bed reactor, in which double the conversion of CO was obtained in comparison with the ceria supported in a conventional support, alumina. What’s more, the carbon supported catalyst presents greater selectivity towards H2 formation, sustaining that there is a synergistic effect, attributed to the hydrogen spillover fenomena, between ceria and carbon-based support that improves the catalytic activity of the material.