Non-Thermal Plasma Activation of Gold-Based Catalysts for Low-Temperature Water-Gas Shift Catalysis

Cristina E Stere; James A Anderson; Sarayute Chansai; Juan Jose Delgado; Alexandre Goguet; Willam G Graham; C Hardacre; S F Rebecca Taylor; Xin Tu; Ziyun Wang; Hui Yang

doi:10.1002/anie.201612370

Non-Thermal Plasma Activation of Gold-Based Catalysts for Low-Temperature Water-Gas Shift Catalysis

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 May 8;56(20):5579-5583. doi: 10.1002/anie.201612370. Epub 2017 Apr 12.

Authors

Cristina E Stere^{1

2}, James A Anderson³, Sarayute Chansai^{1

2}, Juan Jose Delgado⁴, Alexandre Goguet¹, Willam G Graham⁵, C Hardacre^{1

2}, S F Rebecca Taylor^{1

2}, Xin Tu⁶, Ziyun Wang², Hui Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queens University Belfast, David Keir Building, Belfast, BT9 5AG, UK.
² School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, The Mill, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
³ Surface Chemistry and Catalysis Group, School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, UK.
⁴ Departamento de Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería MetalúrgicayQuímica Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencia, Universidad de Cádiz, 11510, Puerto Real (Cádiz), Spain.
⁵ School of Mathematics and Physics, Queens University Belfast, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK.
⁶ Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 3GJ, UK.

Abstract

Non-thermal plasma activation has been used to enable low-temperature water-gas shift over a Au/CeZrO₄ catalyst. The activity obtained was comparable with that attained by heating the catalyst to 180 °C providing an opportunity for the hydrogen production to be obtained under conditions where the thermodynamic limitations are minimal. Using in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRIFTS), structural changes associated with the gold nanoparticles in the catalyst have been observed which are not found under thermal activation indicating a weakening of the Au-CO bond and a change in the mechanism of deactivation.

Keywords: carbon monoxide; heterogeneous catalysis; plasma catalysis; thermodynamic equilibrium; water-gas shift reaction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't