Patent Application
20080260607
The invention relates to the use of catalysts in general and particularly to a method that employs oxygen to improve the stability of catalysts.
Catalysts used for various reactions, and in particular the water-gas shift (hereinafter “WGS”) reaction, are known to suffer loss of activity with continued use. Deactivation with time on stream and/or in shutdown operation currently plagues all known WGS catalysts, based on ceria or copper oxide. This degradation has negative impact in the development of practical catalysts for fuel processing/fuel cells.
Descriptions of systems that have been used in attempts to improve such degradative effects for catalysts generally include those appearing in the following patents or patent applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,432 assigned to Engelhard Corporation reports that in order to stabilize a Pt/ceria catalyst, one can add SnO2 and increase the amount of platinum to 10 wt %. This invention has not identified oxygen as a stabilizer of WGS activity of the Pt/ceria catalysts.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0082471 A1, owned by Engelhard Corporation, reports a method for preparation of non-pyrophoric copper-alumina catalysts. Oxygen can be used to passivate the catalyst to prevent copper from catching fire during shipment. Oxygen was also used to regenerate the deactivated Cu-based catalysts at the temperature from 200° C. to 800° C.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0141938 A1, owned by Engelhard Corporation, describes that addition of platinum group metals to copper-based catalysts can reduce or prevent the deactivation of the catalysts that would otherwise occur upon exposure to steam at 220° C. and lower. This application does not describe such activity down to room temperature. The disclosure mentions that less than 2O2 can be included to the gas stream and the oxidation of small portions of CO will prevent the platinum copper-based catalyst deactivation.
Fuel cell power generation is currently undergoing rapid development both for stationary and transportation applications. In the transportation sector, fuel cells can augment or replace the internal combustion engines in vehicles such as cars, trucks, and buses, while meeting the most stringent emission regulations. In stationary power generation, residential, commercial, and industrial applications are envisioned. In some cases, the hydrogen feedstock will be obtained from hydrogen-rich fuels by on-board or on-site fuel reforming. Generally, the reformate gas includes hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O) and a small amount of methane (CH4). However, the CO component needs to be completely removed upstream of a low-temperature fuel cell, such as the PEM fuel cell, because it poisons the anode catalyst, thus degrading the fuel cell performance. CO is also a criterion pollutant.
The low-temperature water-gas shift reaction (LTS), which is represented by the relation CO+H2O CO2+H2, is used to convert carbon monoxide with water vapor to hydrogen and CO2. Currently, a selective CO oxidation reactor is envisioned as the last fuel-processing step upstream of the fuel cell anode. A highly active LTS catalyst would obviate the need for the CO oxidation reactor.
Desired catalyst characteristics include high activity and stability over a wider operating temperature window than is currently possible with the commercial LTS catalysts. Catalysts based on cerium oxide (ceria) are promising for this application. Ceria is presently used as a key component of the three-way catalyst in automotive exhausts. Ceria is also a good choice as a support of both noble metal and base metal oxide catalysts. Ceria participates in redox reactions by supplying and removing oxygen. Metal-ceria systems are several orders of magnitude more active than metal/alumina or other oxide supports for a number of redox reactions. Cu-ceria is more stable than other Cu-based LTS catalysts and at least as active as the precious metal-ceria systems, which are well known for their LTS activity in the catalytic converter.
During the past decade, many studies have established that nanosized gold (Au)-on-reducible oxides have a remarkable catalytic activity for many important oxidation reactions, especially low-temperature CO oxidation, the Water Gas Shift (WGS) reaction, hydrocarbon oxidation, NO reduction and the selective oxidation of propylene to propylene oxide. There is presently no consensus as to the cause of the very high activity of nanoparticles of Au-on-reducible oxides. For example, in oxidation/reduction reactions, some researchers have argued that the oxygen at the interface between the metal and the oxide support is important, while others invoke dissociative O2 adsorption (as oxygen atoms) on very small Au particles but not on bulk Au particles to explain the activity. The unique properties of supported nanoscale Au particles have been correlated to a number of variables, including Au particle size, Au-support interface, the state and structure of the support, as well as the pretreatment of catalysts.
There is a need for an inexpensive and efficient catalyst material having good stability in air and in cyclic operation (including shutdown to room temperature in the presence of condensing water vapor) with respect to the water-gas shift reaction. There is a need for methods and systems that diminish such degradation with time, without adversely affecting the catalytic behavior for the desired reaction.
In one aspect, the invention relates to a method of improving the behavior with time of gold-ceria catalysts, platinum-ceria and possibly other catalysts, by incorporation of oxygen in the range of 0.1-2.0% in gas mixtures used as feed for the WGS reaction.
In overview, a fuel cell consists of two electrodes sandwiched around an electrolyte. Atomic (or molecular) hydrogen fed to the one electrode (anode) gives up electrons to form protons. The protons pass through the electrolyte and combine with oxygen ions formed by the addition of electrons to atomic or molecular oxygen on the other electrode (cathode). The protons and oxygen ions make water. Heat is produced during the process as a result of the conversion of hydrogen and oxygen to water. Electric current flows through the circuit external to the fuel cell during the process. A fuel cell will produce energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel and oxygen are supplied. To produce fuel-cell quality hydrogen, an important step involves the removal of any by-product carbon monoxide, which poisons the fuel cell anode catalyst.
Many people have spent considerable time and effort studying the properties of gold and platinum nanoparticles that are used to catalyze the reaction of carbon monoxide with water to make hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This reaction is known as the “water-gas shift reaction,” and is given by the formula
CO+H2O—>H2+CO2
For this reaction over a cerium oxide catalyst carrying the gold or platinum, metal nanoparticles are not important. Only a tiny amount of the precious metal in non metallic form is needed to create the active catalyst, which is a cost-effective way to produce clean energy from fuel cells. Typically, a loading of 1-10 wt % of gold or other precious metals is used to make an effective catalyst. However, we have discovered that, after stripping the gold or the platinum with a cyanide solution, the catalyst was just as active with a slight amount of the gold remaining-approximately one-tenth the normal amount used.
Another reaction that is useful to reduce the concentration of carbon monoxide is the preferred oxidation of CO (also referred to as the “PROX” reaction), which is expressed by the formula
CO+½O2—>CO2
This discovery shows that metallic nanoparticles are mere ‘spectator species’ for some reactions, such as the water-gas shift reaction. The phenomenon may be more general, since we show that it also holds for platinum and may also hold true for other metals and metal oxide supports, such as titanium and iron oxide.
In one aspect, the invention relates to a method of preparing a stabilized catalyst material. The method comprises the steps of providing a substrate component comprising cerium oxide; producing on the substrate component a metallic component having a metal or metal oxide exhibiting catalytic activity in combination with the substrate component; and exposing the substrate component and the metal or metal oxide to a gaseous phase containing oxygen in the range of 0.1-2.0% by volume. The catalyst material exhibits stable catalytic activity upon shutdown and later reactivation.
In one embodiment, the catalytic activity preserved in presence of condensed water. In one embodiment, the catalytic activity preserved at substantially room temperature.
In one embodiment, the gaseous phase comprises a fuel gas. In one embodiment, the fuel gas is a reformate gas derived from a fossil fuel.
In one embodiment, the step of exposing the substrate component and the portion of the structure lacking crystallinity to a gaseous phase containing 0.1-2.0% oxygen comprises exposure to the gaseous phase at a temperature in the range of 20-350° C. In one embodiment, the step of exposing the substrate component and the portion of the structure lacking crystallinity to a gaseous phase containing 0.1-2.0% oxygen comprises exposure to the gaseous phase for a period of at least 10 minutes. In one embodiment, the step of providing the substrate component comprises forming the substrate by a gelation/coprecipitation process followed by calcining. In one embodiment, the step of producing on the surface of the substrate component a metallic component comprises applying the metallic component by a process selected from precipitation, co-precipitation, gelation, evaporation, a deposition-precipitation process, an impregnation process, adsorption of molecules followed by decomposition, ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition. In one embodiment, the substrate component comprises a microcrystalline substance. In one embodiment, the substrate component comprises a selected one of a rare-earth-, an alkaline earth-, a Sc- or a Y-doped cerium oxide. In one embodiment, the substrate comprises a metal oxide. In one embodiment, the substrate component comprises an oxide of a selected one of Ti, Zr, Hf, Al, Si, and Zn. In one embodiment, the metallic component comprises an element selected from the group consisting of Au, Pt, Cu, Rh, Pd, Ag, Fe, Mn, Ni, Co, Ru, and Ir. In one embodiment, the catalytic activity is exhibited in the performance of a water gas shift reaction. In one embodiment, the catalytic activity is exhibited in the performance of a PROX reaction. In one embodiment, the substrate comprises a crystalline defect solid that provides oxygen to a reaction.
In one embodiment, the invention comprises a catalyst material prepared according to the method of claim 1. In one embodiment, the catalyst material comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of Au, Pt, Cu, Rh, Pd, Ag, Fe, Mn, Ni, Co, Ru, and Ir. In one embodiment, the substrate component comprises a microcrystalline substance. In one embodiment, the substrate component comprises an oxide. In one embodiment, the metallic component is Au and the substrate component is lanthanum-doped cerium oxide. In one embodiment, the Au has a concentration in the range of one atomic percent to one one-hundredth of an atomic percent, wherein the atomic percentage is computed according to the expression [100×grams Au/(atomic mass of Au)]/[grams Au/(atomic mass of Au)+grams Ce/(atomic mass of Ce)+grams La/(atomic mass of La)], based on a chemical composition of the catalytic material. In one embodiment, the Au has a concentration in the range of one-half of an atomic percent to one-tenth of an atomic percent, wherein the atomic percentage is computed according to the expression [100×grams Au/(atomic mass of Au)]/[grams Au/(atomic mass of Au)+grams Ce/(atomic mass of Ce)+grams La/(atomic mass of La)], based on a chemical composition of the catalytic material. In one embodiment, the catalyst material is a catalyst for a water gas shift reaction. In one embodiment, the catalyst material is a catalyst for a preferential CO oxidation (PROX) reaction. In one embodiment, the catalyst material is a catalyst for a steam reforming reaction. In one embodiment, the invention is a chemical apparatus comprising a catalyst material according to any of the previous claims. In one embodiment, the chemical apparatus is a chemical reactor.
In one embodiment, the chemical reactor is a reactor comprises at least one entry port for admitting fuel gas to the reactor and at least one entry port for adding oxygen-bearing gas to the fuel gas stream. In one embodiment, the at least on entry port is situated at a selected one of the same port at which the fuel gas is admitted to the reactor and one or more ports for injecting controlled quantities of oxygen-bearing gas along the length of the reactor. In one embodiment, the chemical apparatus is an analytical instrument.
In another aspect, the invention features a method of performing a chemical reaction. The method comprises the steps of providing a catalytically effective amount of a catalyst material, exposing the substrate component and the metal or metal oxide to a gaseous phase containing oxygen in the range of 0.1-2.0% by volume; and exposing the catalyst material to a selected chemical substance under predetermined conditions of temperature and pressure. The selected chemical substance undergoes a catalyzed chemical reaction to produce a product. The catalyst material comprises a substrate component comprising cerium oxide and a metallic component having a metal or metal oxide exhibiting catalytic activity in combination with the substrate component.
In one embodiment, the catalyst material comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of Au, Pt, Cu, Rh, Pd, Ag, Ni, Co, and Ir. In one embodiment, the step of exposing the substrate component and the metal or metal oxide to a gaseous phase containing substantially 0.1-2.0% oxygen comprises exposure to the gaseous phase at a temperature of 20-350° C. In one embodiment, the step of exposing the substrate component and the metal or metal oxide to a gaseous phase containing substantially 0.1-2.0% oxygen comprises exposure to the gaseous phase for a period of at least 10 minutes.
In yet another aspect, the invention relates to an improved catalyst material having a substrate component comprises cerium oxide and a metallic component having a metal or metal oxide exhibiting catalytic activity in combination with the substrate component, wherein the improvement comprises stabilization of catalytic activity of the improved catalyst material by exposure of the substrate component and the metallic component having a metal or metal oxide to a gaseous phase containing substantially 0.1-2.0% oxygen.
The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description and from the claims.
The objects and features of the invention can be better understood with reference to the drawings described below, and the claims. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. In the drawings, like numerals are used to indicate like parts throughout the various views.
In general terms, the disclosure describes catalysts having active metallic constituents deposited on metal oxide substrates, and subsequently chemically treated to remove therefrom significant amounts of the metallic constituent, including substantially all of the crystalline deposited metal. Deposited active metal remains on or in the substrate in a form or forms that are smaller in size than one nanometer. In one embodiment, the metallic constituent is a structure lacking crystallinity. It is thought that the structure lacking crystallinity contains so few atoms that a crystalline structure electronic metallic character is not observed. The catalysts have been discovered to operate with undiminished efficiency as compared to the deposited metallic constituent that includes nanocrystalline metallic particles on the same substrates. The removal of the majority of the metallic constituent, in some cases as much as 90% thereof, does not compromise the catalytic nature of the material, while providing substantial reductions in cost, especially when the metallic constituent comprises gold, platinum, or other precious metals. In some embodiments, the substrate is a zeolite, carbide, nitride, sulfate, or sulfide.
The invention relates to heterogeneous catalysts for oxidation reactions, and to methods for producing and using the same, in which the metal catalyst is formed in an atomically dispersed condition in a substrate, while maintaining the activity and stability normally associated on such a catalyst with much larger amounts of metal atoms exposed on nanometer (nm) sized metallic particles.
The methods involve the production of a highly defective surface on an oxide (e.g. common catalyst supports such as ceria, titania, alumina, magnesia, iron oxide, zinc oxide, and zirconia) and the incorporation of atomically dispersed metals (as ions, neutral atoms, or clusters of atoms too small to exhibit metallic character) on or in such a surface, followed by removal of significant amounts of the metal that is deposited in nanocrystalline form. The removed metal part is recovered in the process. The methods can be employed with transition metals including Au, Pt, Cu, Rh, Pd, Ag, Fe, Mn, Ni, Co, Ru, and Ir. Methods of preparation of the catalytic materials of the invention include preparing substrate materials by such methods as thermal decomposition, precipitation, and any ceramic preparation technique. Methods of depositing metallic substances, including precipitation or other means of driving metals from solution, co-precipitation with the substrate, co-gelation, evaporation, a process selected from a deposition-precipitation process, an impregnation process, adsorption of molecules followed by decomposition, ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition, and physical vapor deposition can be used to add metal to a substrate.
The incorporation often requires the presence of significantly more metal during preparation to drive the process than is required in the final product. Once prepared, the significant metal excess typically present as nm-size metallic particles can be removed with no change in catalytic activity. This result is unexpected. The residual metal content is only a small fraction of the original formulation. For gold/ceria, an active water gas shift catalyst suitable for hydrogen fuel cell systems, the removal is approximately 90%. In other embodiments, removal of 10%, 25%, or 50% of the metal is contemplated.
The concentration of a catalytic metal denoted Z deposited on a substrate containing metallic elements P and Q may be calculated by the relation:
In an equivalent expression, one may write
As an example, the concentration of gold in atomic percent on a substrate comprising cerium and lanthanum is represented as [100×grams Au/(atomic mass of Au)]/[grams Au/(atomic mass of Au)+grams Ce/(atomic mass of Ce)+grams La/(atomic mass of La)]. For gold as a catalyst metal on a substrate comprising cerium and lanthanum, concentrations in the range of 0.01 to 1.0 atomic percent are preferred, and concentrations in the range of 0.1 to 0.5 atomic percent are more preferred.
Use of preparation methods that lead to defective oxide surfaces having defects below a specific density does not permit the removal of the particles while maintaining catalytic activity.
The novelty of this process is significant given the vast literature that describes the role of the nm-sized metal particle and that makes only passing comment on other possible species, which appear not to have been investigated in detail.
Synthesis pathways of the catalysts include the steps of preparation of the composite metal/metal oxide or the preparation of the defective solid surface followed by incorporation of the catalytic metal, followed by the removal of excess metal present in the form of crystalline particles when such crystalline particles are formed in the synthesis process. Thus synthetic processes such as gelation, coprecipitation, impregnation, sputtering, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and physical vapor deposition (PVD) can be combined appropriately to produce the catalyst.
Some of the advantages of the method of preparation and the resulting catalyst are: significant reduction in the cost of the catalytic metal required; easy wet chemistry for some systems with practical precious metal recovery; and stability and activity under operation conditions essentially those of the high metal loaded catalyst.
Ceria particles with diameter less than 10 nm have increased electronic conductivity, and doping with a rare earth oxide, such as La2O3, can be used to create oxygen vacancies, and stabilize ceria particles against sintering. We have prepared and examined, by the methods described hereinbelow, nanoscale Metal-(La doped) ceria catalysts using three different techniques: CP, DP, and urea gelation/coprecipitation (UGC), where Metal comprises gold, platinum, copper, and other metals.
Catalyst Preparation
Doped and undoped bulk ceria was prepared by the UGC method, as described in detail in Y. Li, Q. Fu, M. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Appl. Catal. B: Environ. 27 (2000) 179, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The cerium salt used in UGC is (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6. In brief, aqueous metal nitrate solutions were mixed with urea (H2N—CO—NH2) and heated to 100° C. under vigorous stirring and addition of deionized water. The resulting gel was boiled and aged for 8 h at 100° C. After aging, the precipitate was filtered and washed with deionized water. Further, the precipitate was dried at 100-120° C. and calcined in static air at 400° C. for 10 hours, or 650° C. for 4 hours. Some samples were calcined at 800° C. for 4 hours. A heating rate of 2° C./min to the selected temperature was used. The precipitate was treated by the same procedures in all preparation methods described herein.
A CP method using ammonium carbonate as the precipitant was used to prepare an Au-ceria catalyst, according to preparative methods reported in W. Liu and M. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, J. Catal. 53 (1995) 304-332, which paper is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. More recently, under the direction of one of the inventors, Weber studied various preparation methods and conducted a full parametric study of each method in an effort to optimize the activity of this catalyst for CO oxidation, as reported in A. Weber, M. S. Thesis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Mass., 1999, which document is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. A DP technique was found the most promising. Both the CP and DP methods were used to prepare materials described herein while the UGC was also used to prepare one Au-ceria sample and Cu-ceria samples for comparison.
CP involves mixing an aqueous solution of HAuCl4, cerium(III) nitrate (Ce(NO3)3) and lanthanum nitrate (La(NO3)3) with (NH4)2CO3 at 60-70° C., keeping a constant pH value of 8 and aging the precipitate at 60-70° C. for 1 h. For DP, the ceria support was first prepared by UGC and calcined. DP took place by adding the desired amount of HAuCl4 dropwise into an aqueous slurry of the prepared ceria. The pH of the aqueous slurry had already been adjusted to the value of 8 using (NH4)2CO3. The resulting precipitate was aged at room temperature. (RT) for 1 h. Unlike a previously reported DP method which uses NaOH as the base and excess (about five times) HAuCl4, the present method can deposit the desired gold loading on ceria using the exact amount of HAuCl4 solution. For comparison to Au-ceria samples prepared by CP and DP, one sample containing a large loading (8 at. %) of gold in ceria was prepared by UGC. The solution containing HAuCl4, (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6, La(NO3)2 and urea, was heated to 80° C. instead of 100° C. Both bulk copper-ceria samples described herein were made by UGC, following the procedure described above for metal-free ceria.
The ceria produced by UGC after calcinations at 400° C. had a mean particle size 5 nm with a surface area of ˜150 m2/g. Gold was then applied onto ceria by deposition-precipitation (DP) according to the procedure outlined above. After several washes and drying, the Au-ceria particles were calcined in air at 400° C. for 10 hours. Most of the Au thus prepared is in the form of metal nanoparticles, ˜5 nm avg. size. The deposition step has a negligible effect on the total surface area of ceria. For comparison, we made gold-ceria samples prepared by a single co-precipitation step (CP) according to the procedure described above, and by the UGC technique.
Leaching of gold took place in an aqueous solution of 2% NaCN at room temperature. Sodium hydroxide was added to keep the pH at ˜12. This same process is used to extract gold during gold mining. No Ce or La was found in the leachate. The leached samples were washed, dried (120° C., 10 hours) and heated in air (400° C., 2 hours). More than 90% of the gold loading was removed from the ceria by this leaching procedure. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM)/Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) showed no gold particles remaining. Only what appeared to be very fine clusters or atomically dispersed gold was observed. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) identified ionic gold as the major or only gold species present in the leached materials, as is described in more detail below.
Platinum-bearing samples were produced in a similar manner. La-doped ceria powders were prepared by UGC as described above. They were then impregnated with an aqueous solution of H2PtCL6 of appropriate concentration, whose volume equaled the total pore volume of ceria. The Pt-ceria was prepared by use of the incipient wetness impregnation (IMP) technique. After impregnation, the samples were degassed and dried at room temperature under vacuum. After drying in a vacuum oven at 110° C. for 10 hours, the samples were crushed and calcined in air at 400° C. for 10 hours. Calcined Pt-ceria samples were leached by the same procedure as the gold catalysts. The leached sample is denoted as Pt-CL(IMP, NaCN1). To further reduce the amount of Pt, Pt-CL(IMP, NaCN1) was leached in 2% NaCN solution at 80° C. for 12 hours. The corresponding sample is denoted as Pt-CL(IMP, NaCN2). The properties of Au- and Pt-ceria samples that were prepared and tested are presented in Table I.
All reagents used in catalyst preparation were analytical grade. The samples are denoted as αAu-CL (z), where α is the atomic percent (at. %) gold loading [100×(Au/MAu)/(Au/MAu+Ce/MCe+La/MLa)], the atomic symbol represents grams of the element, the symbol Matomic symbol represents the atomic weight, and z is the method of preparation: CP, DP, or UGC. Calcination temperature will be noted only if it differs from 400° C., the typical catalyst calcination temperature used for most samples. The lanthanum doping of ceria is around 10 at. %. Lanthanum-doped ceria samples are denoted as CL.
Catalyst Characterization
The bulk elemental composition of each sample was determined by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission spectrometry (Perkin-Elmer, Plasma 40). The total sample surface area was measured by single-point BET N2 adsorption/desorption on a Micromeritics Pulse ChemiSorb 2705. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis of the samples was performed on a Rigaku 300X-ray diffractometer with rotating anode generators and a monochromatic detector. Cu Kα radiation was used. The crystal size of ceria and gold was calculated from the peak broadening using the Scherrer equation, according to the description of J. W. Niemantsverdriet, Spectroscopy in Catalysis, VCH, New York, N.Y., 1995.
High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) was used to study the sample morphology. The analyses were performed on a JEOL 2010 instrument with an ultimate point-to-point resolution of 1.9 Å and lattice resolution of 1.4 Å. The TEM was equipped with a X-ray detector for elemental analysis of selected samples areas. The sample powder was suspended in isopropyl alcohol using an ultrasonic bath and deposited on the carbon-coated 200 mesh Cu grid.
A Kratos AXIS Ultra Imaging X-ray photoelectron spectrometer with a resolution of 0.1 eV was used to determine the atomic metal ratios of the surface region and metal oxidation state of selected catalysts. Samples were in powder form and were pressed on a double-side adhesive copper tape. All measurements were carried out at RT without any sample pretreatment. An Al Kα X-ray source was used.
Activity Tests
Water-gas shift reaction tests were performed at atmospheric pressure with 150 mg catalyst powder (50-150 μm size). The catalyst was supported on a quartz frit at the center of a quartz-tube flow reactor (1.0 cm i.d.), which was heated inside an electric furnace. The feed gas mixture in some tests contained 2% CO and 10.7% H2O in helium. In other tests a simulated reformate-type gas was used, containing higher amounts of CO and H2O as well as large amounts of H2 and CO2. The total gas flow rate was 100 cm3/min (NTP). The corresponding contact time for the ceria-based samples was 0.09 g s/cm3 (gas hourly space velocity, GHSV=80,000 h−1). All ceria samples were used in the as prepared form without activation. Water was injected into the flowing gas stream by a calibrated syringe pump and vaporized in the heated gas feed line before entering the reactor. A condenser filled with ice was installed at the reactor exit to collect water. The reactant and product gas streams were analyzed using a HP-6890 gas chromatograph equipped with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD). A Carbosphere (Alltech) packed column (6 ft×⅛ in.) was used to separate CO and CO2.
Temperature-Programmed Reduction (TPR)
TPR of the as-prepared catalysts in fine powder form was carried out in a Micromeritics Pulse ChemiSorb 2705 instrument. The samples were first oxidized in a 10% O2/He gas mixture (50 cm3/min (NTP)) at 350° C. for 30 min, cooled down to 200° C. and then flushed with pure nitrogen (Grade 5) to RT. The sample holder was then immersed in liquid nitrogen. A 20% H2/N2 gas mixture (50 cm3/min (NTP)) was next introduced over the sample causing a large desorption peak, at the end point of which the liquid N2 was removed and the sample temperature was raised to RT. A second large desorption peak was recorded at that time. Those two peaks appeared with all samples, even for pure ceria, and were identical. They are attributed to desorption of physically adsorbed nitrogen and hydrogen. The sample was then heated at a rate of 5° C./min from RT to 900° C. A cold trap filled with a mixture of isopropanol and liquid nitrogen was placed in the gas line upstream of the TCD to remove the water vapor.
Oxygen Storage Capacity (OSC) Measurements
OSC measurements were carried out in a flow reactor system, equipped with a switching valve for rapid introduction of step changes in gas streams of CO/He, He, and O2/He. Catalyst samples were prepared by cold pressing thin disks from powders and breaking the disks into small pieces. The fragments (0.3 g) were loaded into the (¼) in. quartz reactor tube and supported on a frit. A total gas flow rate of 50 cm3/min (NTP) was used. Certified gas mixtures were used and passed through moisture and oxygen traps before entering the system. The 10% CO/He gas stream passed through a hydrocarbon trap in addition to the above treatments. The steady-state signals of CO, CO2 and O2 were detected by an on-line quadrupole residual gas analyzer (MKS-model RS-1). The reactor tube could be bypassed. Prior to an OSC measurement, the sample was first heated in 10% O2 at 350° C. for 15-20 min. The sample was further purged in helium at 350° C. for half hour to remove oxygen from the system. Then the sample was exposed to 10% CO/He and 10% O2/He step changes at the desired test temperature. In all cases, CO2 production was limited, although CO and O2 were at initial gas levels. Each experiment consists of flowing CO through the by-pass line for 3 min followed by flowing CO through the reactor for 3 min. Then O2 flowed through the by-pass line for 3 min followed by O2 flowing through the reactor for 3 min. A 6 min pulse of He between the CO and O2 step pulses was used to ensure complete removal of gas phase species. The CO flow through the by-pass was used as a blank to stabilize the mass spectrometer, while the by-pass O2 was used to remove any carbon deposited on the filament of the mass spectrometer. Integration of the partial pressure as a function of time was used to accurately determine the amounts of CO2 formed, and CO and O2 consumed during the CO and O2 step pulses.
We now turn to a discussion of the behavior of the catalyst materials as shown and described with respect to
The reacting gas mixture simulates a reformate gas composition, such as 11% CO, 7% CO2, 26% H2, 26% H2O, in an inert gas carrier, such as helium (He). See Table VI for sample properties. Activation of catalysts was not necessary. Similar rates of CO2 production (per m2 catalyst surface area) were measured over the parent (4.4 (CP), 4.7 (DP) or 2.8(DP) at % Au) and the corresponding leached (0.7, 0.44 or 0.23 at % Au) ceria catalysts. The apparent activation energy Ea for the reaction is the same for parent and leached catalysts, 47.8±1.5 kJ/mol for the DP and 36.8±0.9 kJ/mol for the CP samples. The rate over the Au-free nanosize CL sample was much lower over the temperature range of interest, with an Ea of 83 kJ/mol. Also shown in
The data in
The oxidation states of Au and Pt in both the parent and leached ceria samples were checked by XPS, as shown in
The common features in both systems were: (i) the existence of ionic states (Au+1, +3 and Pt+2, +4) both before and after leaching; and (ii) the complete removal of metallic Au or Pt nanoparticles after the leaching step. No cerium or lanthanum loss took place during the leaching step as verified by ICP analysis of the leachate solutions. The absence of Au or Pt particles on the leached ceria samples was also confirmed by HRTEM. The intensities shown in
Referring to
It may be argued that the oxidic gold observed in our samples is due to the preparation conditions (air calcination at 400° C.), and that during reaction under net reducing conditions, zerovalent gold dominates. This possibility would require further studies. An important observation that we have made here, however, is that the used catalyst, after more than 20 h at reaction conditions cannot be further leached; i.e. even if gold changes oxidation state during reaction, it does not migrate to form metallic particles.
As shown in
The use of dry CO in temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) identified oxygen species of importance to low-temperature WGS on the parent and leached catalysts. Various types of oxygen have been identified on cerium oxide, ranging from weakly bound adsorbed oxygen to surface capping oxygen to lattice oxygen, depending on the operating temperature. A synergistic redox model for Metal/CeO2 has been proposed in which the metal particle participates by providing adsorption sites for CO, while ceria supplies the required oxygen. This simple model does not provide atomic-level understanding and mechanistic resolution of several key questions; most importantly it assigns the CO adsorption sites on metal particles. However, as
CO-TPR of fully oxidized parent and leached Au-ceria (DP) samples and the CL material are shown in
The appearance of H2 along with CO2 elution during CO-TPR is attributed to surface hydroxyls remaining in ceria even after the oxidation pre-treatment step in dry O2/He mixture at 350° C. Very little H2 was produced when the CO-TPR was repeated after reoxidation at 400° C., and by the fourth cycle, only trace amounts of H2 evolved. The amount of CO2 eluted in all cycles was the same, and its production began and peaked at the same temperatures, as those shown for the first cycle in
One may well ask how gold ions or adatoms interact with ceria to weaken both its Os1 and Os2 surface oxygens. A distribution of electronic charges between atomic gold or a small cluster of gold atoms and ceria could weaken the Ce—O bond. Evidence from H2-TPR and separate pulse reactor experiments with CO in our lab strongly suggests that gold increases the amount of surface oxygen of ceria. This increase can occur via partial lattice filling of vacant cerium sites with Auδ+
The identification of Au ions, as seen in
The importance of the surface defects of ceria as the ‘anchoring’ sites of Au, and in turn as the active sites for WGS, can be seen in ceria samples annealed at high temperatures, which effectively reduces the number density of these sites. Defects in ceria can be two types, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic defects are due to the oxygen anion vacancies created upon thermal disorder or the reduction of ceria. The extrinsic defects are due to oxygen anion vacancies created by the charge compensation effect of low valence foreign cations. The concentration of defects can be calculated from the lattice expansion measured by XRD. If we assume that gold only associates with the oxygen defects in ceria, the required Au (or Pt) is 0.13 at % for CeO2, and 0.57 at % for Ce(10% La)Ox (both calcined at 400° C.), and only 0.03 at % for the undoped CeO2 calcined at 800° C. (see Table I). These values will increase if gold or platinum ions substitute in the ceria lattice. The reaction rate measured over 3.4% Au—CeO2 (calcined at 800° C. for 4 h, Table I) was very low, but the activation energy was the same as for the other Au-ceria (DP) materials shown in
We have described a two-step method of preparation of active gold-ceria catalyst by leaching the parent catalyst. The first step of the method involved using a large amount of gold to prepare an active catalyst. The second step involved leaching, which unexpectedly leaves the catalyst activity intact even if most of the gold is removed. We shall refer the method of making catalysts of the invention prepared by the two-step method (i.e., deposition followed by leaching excess gold) as “indirect preparation.” As a result of removing gold that does not contribute to the catalytic activity, it is possible to recover gold from the leachate solution, which permits the cost of the catalyst to be reduced as compared to conventional catalysts. However, this approach is complex as it involves two steps. A more direct synthesis (or “direct preparation”) of the pure catalyst (or purified form of the catalyst) of the invention would offer appreciable advantages, if such a direct preparation were possible.
We attempted to deposit a similar amount of gold as that found in the leached catalyst to get an active catalyst in one step. In the first attempts when the NaCN leachate (retrieved from 5% Au-CL(DP)) was used at high pH, we failed to deposit gold on the lanthanum-doped ceria (Ce(La)Ox) by the DP method.
We then tried to prepare an active catalyst by an impregnation method described below using either a solution of NaAu(CN)2 purchased from Aldrich or NaCN leachate solution. The surface area and bulk composition of these materials' are listed in Table II. We designed the process to put 1.2% Au on lanthanum-doped ceria in samples 1, 2, and 4 to 6 and 0.5% Au on lanthanum-doped ceria in sample 3. As can be seen in Table II, gold was successfully deposited on lanthanum-doped ceria by this impregnation method at room temperature. Addition of NaOH did not have any effect. The surface area did not change after impregnation. The color of these materials is dark-gray, indicating the presence of some metallic gold.
The impregnation method used was performed as follows. The substrates, comprising CeO2 or Ce(La)Ox, were made by the urea gelation/coprecipitation technique (as described above) with or without being calcined in air at 400° C. for 10 h. The substrates were impregnated with a solution of NaAu(CN)2 or NaCN leachate of appropriate concentration, whose volume of liquid was calculated to equal the total pore volume of the support (the incipient wetness method). A dropper was used to impregnate the support under constant stirring. After impregnation, the samples were degassed in a vacuum desiccator at room temperature to slowly remove the water. The remaining metal salt solution decorates the pores of the support. After drying in the vacuum oven at 110° C. overnight, the samples were then crushed and calcined in air at 400° C. for 2 hours.
These results, while positive, do not represent optimization of the various parameters, such as the type of precursor, its conditions of preparation and pre-treatment, variations in pH value, variations in soluble metal species, times, temperatures, and other preparative parameters. We have studied some variations in such preparative parameters, which are described in greater detail below. The precursor [AuIII(CH3)2(acac)] (where acac denotes acetylacetonate, C5H7O2) [J. Guzman & B. C. Gates, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42 (2003) 690] would be a good candidate to try as a source of gold. Other precursors for deposition of gold or for deposition of other metals of interest, e.g., platinum, rhodium, palladium, iridium, ruthenium, cobalt, nickel; iron, manganese, copper, will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the deposition arts. Based on the above findings, it is possible to directly prepare catalysts, such as a low-content gold, active gold-ceria catalyst of the invention without wasting any gold.
In the experiments we have conducted to date, leaching the Au immediately after deposition and before heating failed to produce an active catalyst. Based on this result, we infer that diffusion of Au ions into ceria takes place during the heating step in the preparation process. The temperature required to cause diffusion is not known definitively, but appears to be above 200° C. For example, we have observed that total leaching of Au also takes place on a catalyst calcined in air at 200° C. after deposition. At 200° C., gold hydroxides decompose to form mostly metallic gold. Gold cations are stabilized by the cerium oxide support. The thermal treatment in the reformate gas mixture of 11% CO, 7% CO2, 26% H2, 26% H2O causes the diffusion of Au ions at lower temperatures. In experiments to date, after heating in this reformate gas up to 225° C., a part of the Au is not leachable. In general, the exact time and temperature heating cycle required for fixing the catalytic metal will depend on the method of preparation and the composition of the substrate material and the catalytic metal used, including the catalytic metal precursor. The method of incorporation of the noncrystalline substance into the substrate can be heating, activation by optical methods, and by other non-thermal techniques.
We have found in previous work that dopants can stabilize the ceria and prevent its sintering. As shown in Table III, the surface area of pure CeO2 calcined at 800° C. only is 25.9 m2/g, while that of La-doped ceria is 43.6 m2/g. Remarkably, the surface area of leached Au-ceria, which contains only 0.44% Au, is 61.1 m2/g, after the 800° C. thermal treatment. Leaching the 800° C. treated Au-ceria sample a second time reduced the Au concentration from 0.44 at % to 0.14 at %. Gold was stabilized in the ceria matrix. Embedded gold, in turn, suppresses the sintering of ceria.
Turning back to material prepared by the “indirect preparation,” the long-term stability of leached and parent catalysts, was investigated. After an initial deactivation of less than 20%, the activity remained stable. The WGS rates were measured in a reformate-type gas composed of 5% CO, 15% CO2, 35% H2, and balance He, using the test conditions of temperature T=250° C., and space velocity of 16,000 h−1.
We have also examined the dopant effect of rare-earth metals in Au lanthanum-doped ceria doped with 10% La or 30% La. Table V lists the physical properties of these materials. The surface area of these materials is similar.
Catalysts are used to carry out many different reactions. In particular, the use of gold catalysts of the invention for catalyzing a chemical reaction other than the WGS reaction has been demonstrated. Two catalysts, 4.7Au-CL(DP) and 0.44 Au-CL(DP, NaCN) were selected to examine their activity for the steam reforming of methanol reaction. Pre-mixed methanol and water were injected into the reaction system by a calibrated syringe pump. Before entering the reactor, the reactants were vaporized in a heated gas feed line. Water and methanol were used in a ratio of 3 parts water to one part methanol, measured by liquid volume. The reactions that occur during the steam reforming are given as equations (1), (2) and (3) below:
CH3OH+H2O→CO2+3H2 (1)
CH3OH→CO+2H2 (2)
CO+H2O→CO2+H2 (3)
The equations used to calculate the rate and selectivity are:
Conversion(%)=100×(FCO2+FCO)/FCH3OH (initial)
Rate(molCO2/gcat×sec)=FCO2/Wcat
Rate(molH2/gcat×sec)=(3×FCO22×FCO)/Wcat
Selectivity(%)=100×FCO2/(FCO2+FCO)
Still further results are shown in
In
The 2.02 at % Au/Fe2O3 was leached with NaCN, using the same method as for Au-ceria. The Au concentration was reduced from 2.02 atom % to 0.73 atom %. However, the rate of the WGS reaction remained almost the same. This shows that the NaCN leaching method is also useful for other supports. It also shows that the activity of low-content Au—Fe2O3 is similar to the parent catalyst, with almost three times the gold loading.
We have also examined copper-containing catalysts, to see if the same kind of indirect preparation process produces an active catalyst. Samples of 10.62 at % Cu—Ce(10La)Ox (UGC) were immersed in 7% HNO3 solution for 24 hours and washed with deionized water. Unlike the NaCN leaching process, Ce and La can be found in the leachate. 6.76 at % Cu remained on the acid-leached sample. The rates of acid-leached and parent Cu-CL(IGC) are very close. The rate of the WDS reaction was measured in a reformate-type gas composed of 11% CO, 7% CO2, 26% H2, 26% H2O, and balance He. In
The following comments appear relevant to the invention. Cyanide is possibly not the only selective solvent for the metals. In some embodiments, other oxides and other metals may show significant activity after metal is removed by other reagents. Residual nonmetallic species may be responsible for the catalytic promotion of other reactions. The technique may be useful for achieving atomic level dispersion of several metals in combination, (e.g., Pt and Au). This can lead to multifunctionality that affects selectivity and/or synergy (to boost activity). This dissolution procedure can be used as a simple screening test for catalytic activity. Residual metal after dissolution suggests activity by embedded nonmetallic species. If metal can be removed, and catalyst activity drops, the metal may be a necessary component for the reaction. This simple procedure impacts the development of rationally designed catalysts.
Catalyst Characterization
Au-ceria samples prepared by different techniques had a different crystal habit. These data were reported in detail in Q. Fu, A. Weber, M. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Catal. Lett. 77 (1-3) (2001) 87, and A. Weber, M. S. Thesis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Mass., 1999, the disclosure of each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. For example, in samples prepared by CP, ceria has a needle-like and layered bulk structure, while in the DP samples, ceria has a uniform spherical structure, a result of its prior synthesis by the UGC method. A uniform distribution of gold on ceria was found for the DP sample, while the CP sample contained relatively large gold particles with a lower dispersion. This difference between DP and CP methods was also found for gold deposited on several other oxides, for example as reported by M. Haruta, S. Tsubota, T. Kobayashi, J. Kageyama, M. J. Genet, B. Delmon, J. Catal. 144 (1993) 175, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Metallic gold was present in both DP and CP samples. From HRTEM analysis, as shown in
XRD patterns from samples prepared by different methods are shown in
In
When the 4.7Au-CL (DP) sample was calcined at 650° C., the gold particle size grew to 9.2 nm (see Table VI), which is twice the size of the sample calcined at 400° C. (4.6 nm). Thus, there is a significant effect of calcination temperature on the growth of gold particles.
The nature of the active gold site is unclear. Haruta and co-workers have suggested that the active species are small metallic gold particles, and that atoms of the metal particle at the interface with the support are important active sites. In single-crystal studies, Valden et al. found that catalytic activity for the CO oxidation reaction is maximized with gold nanoparticles of ˜3.2 nm size. Other groups have suggested that both metallic gold and oxidized gold species are responsible for the catalytic oxidation of CO. Kang and Wan proposed that the most active sites are made of gold hydroxide surrounded by iron oxide. Moreover, Park and Lee suggested that the suppression of the transition from oxidized gold to the less active metallic gold by water is the reason for the substantially higher rates of CO oxidation in wet conditions than in dry conditions, which was also reported by Haruta et al. and by Boccuzzi and Chiorino. While all of these proposed theories are scientifically interesting, no one prior to the present has made catalytic materials lacking metallic particulates according t principles of the invention, nor has the catalytic activity of such materials been demonstrated heretofore.
XPS was used to investigate the metal oxidation state of selected catalysts of this invention. The Au 4f and Ce 3d XP spectra of 4.5Au-CL (DP) (curve a), 8Au-CL (UGC) (curve b), and 3.8Au-CL (CP) (curve c) are shown in
H2-TPR and OSC Measurements
H2-TPR using 20% H2/N2, 50 cm3/min (NTP), with a temperature rate of change of 5° C./min was performed on several CL (UGC or CP), Cu-CL and Au-CL (DP or CP) samples.
The onset and amount of oxygen reduction for the CL samples depends on the preparation method, as shown in
Regardless of the type of ceria or addition of metal, a peak at 700° C. corresponding to reduction of bulk oxygen of CeO2, remains unchanged for all samples. This is similar to the case of Pt metals-on-ceria or on ceria-zirconia oxide solid solutions. Other transition metals and metal oxides on ceria have a similar effect. In previous work, we found a clear reducibility enhancement of ceria by copper in the Cu-ceria system. In this work, we have compared the reducibility of ceria induced by either the presence of gold or copper, as shown in
In
Since the TPR technique is not as sensitive to surface oxygen titration, the effect of gold loading on the surface oxygen reducibility can be better followed by a step pulse titration technique effect. The use of CO at a constant temperature, to measure the oxygen availability is known in the literature as the “oxygen storage capacity.” The procedure involves creating a step change in the gaseous environment and under steady-state conditions monitoring the CO2 produced.
In general, “oxygen storage” results from the change in oxidation state associated with the reversible removal and addition of oxygen:
2CeO2+COCe2O3+CO2,
2Ce2O3+O24CeO2
There are several techniques reported for measurements of OSC. Yao and Yu Yao defined OSC as the value of O2 uptake in each step pulse injection following a CO step pulse at equilibrium under the particular set of reaction conditions used. The total oxygen uptake for a series of O2 step pulses following a series of CO injections until a constant breakthrough 95-98% was reached, was the measure of the cumulative oxygen storage capacity (OSCC). In other work, OSC was measured as the CO2 formed during a CO step pulse after oxidation in O2. Sharma et al. recently defined the OSC as the sum of CO2 formed during a CO step pulse and an O2 step pulse after the CO step pulse.
OSC measurements involve a dynamic reaction process. Therefore, OSC is influenced by several operating parameters: pretreatment temperature, temperature during the pulsing experiment, the concentration of gaseous reactant, and the presence of precious metals.
The presence of a precious metal facilitates both the restoration of the surface oxygen anions and their removal by CO at lower temperatures. Increasing the surface area was found to enhance the OSC of ceria-based catalysts. Moreover, decreasing the CeO2 crystallite size leads to greater metal-ceria interaction as shown by both TPR and OSC measurements of the Pt metal-loaded ceria.
The effect of the presence of gold and copper on the OSC of ceria was examined. Results from step pulse measurements at 350° C. with 10% CO/He and 10% O2/He at 50 cm3/min flow rate are shown in
It is noted that three minutes in CO under these conditions are not enough to remove all available oxygen from ceria. The kinetics of the process at 350° C. is very slow. The CO2 produced consists of a sharply rising edge due to rapid reaction of CO with the surface oxygen, followed by a plateau and a long decreasing edge, which is attributed to reaction of CO with the bulk oxygen of ceria whose availability is limited by diffusion. It should be noted that the straw color of stoichiometric ceria immediately changed into the dark blue-gray color of reduced cerium oxide upon exposure to CO. In the oxygen step pulse, over the reduced Au-ceria sample, a very sharp CO2 spike of 348.5 μmol/gcat was observed (
The CO2 production during the first O2 step is shown in
The oxidation of reduced ceria by water was examined at 350° C. on 4.5Au-CL (DP) as shown in
Activity Studies
During a 120 h long stability test of the 4.7Au-CL (DP) sample (footnote ‘c’ in Table VI), its catalytic activity remained the same in a reformate type gas mixture containing 7% CO/38% H2O/11% CO2/33% H2/He at 300° C. (space velocity 6000 h1). No significant changes were observed in the conversion of CO (around 60%) during this test period. Catalyst characterization after this test, found that the ceria particle size increased only slightly, while the gold particle size grew to 6.7 nm (Table VI).
Particle Size Effects
In summary, Au-ceria is an active and stable catalyst for WGS reaction in the temperature range 150-350° C. Addition of Au increases the reducibility and the OSC of cerium oxide. The amount of surface oxygen available for reduction is controlled primarily by the crystal size of ceria. The presence of gold is crucial, however, in that it greatly weakens this oxygen and facilitates the interaction with CO at lower temperatures.
We have discovered that the presence of a small amount (<0.5%) of oxygen in the gas mixture helps to stabilize the performance of gold-ceria catalysts for the water gas shift reaction (WGS). A small amount of added oxygen also prevents the deactivation of the catalyst in frequent start-stop cycles. This discovery has great significance for the development of practical catalysts for fuel processing/fuel cells. In the following, we discuss such matters as making and using these catalytic materials, including catalyst stability issues including thermal stability, stability in redox operations, durability under various reaction conditions, and observations regarding the start-stop operation of catalysts including shutdown at room temperature.
It is believed that the present invention is applicable over for all operating temperatures and for all catalyst compositions generally. In particular, the discovery disclosed herein has never been proposed for Au catalysts before this description, to the best of the inventors' knowledge and belief. In particular, the inventors believe that the methods and systems disclosed herein have not been reported previously as a method to prevent ceria deactivation in full WGS gas streams down to room temperature.
The long term stability testing of gold-ceria catalysts for the water gas shift reaction was conducted in a simulated reformate gas mixture of 11% CO-26% H2O—7% CO2-26% H2—He for 100 hours at a temperature of 300° C. Gas reformation is a process by which a fuel gas or refonrate gas is derived from a fossil fuel. Oxygen addition stabilizes and/or improves the long term stability of gold-ceria catalysts for the water-gas shift reaction.
The catalyst stability under shutdown conditions was tested to simulate fuel processor or fuel cell operation in start-stop cycles.
In
One procedure that can be used to recover full activity is heating in air at a temperature of at least 400° C. The need for separate re-activation with air at 500° C. has been reported by others for Pt/Ceria. No in situ treatment or remedy of this problem has been reported in the literature. No reference to Au-ceria has been found in the open literature.
Another sequence of tests was conducted to investigate the oxygen effect on the catalyst stability in cyclic shut down-startup operation.
Gold-ceria catalysts are also very stable in the preferential CO oxidation (PROX) reaction. This is true both for long-term operation at 120° C. and under shutdown/startup conditions.
The present invention provides insights into new reactor designs for the combined WGS and PROX reactions in the temperature range of practical interest in fuel processing for low-temperature fuel cells.
Gold-ceria catalysts as described herein are not referred to in any of U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,432, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0141938 A1, or U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0082471 A1, which documents have been discussed hereinabove.
Gold-ceria catalysts have been shown to have excellent activity for low-temperature CO cleanup of reformate gas streams for PEM fuel cell use. The maximum amount of gold necessary for activity in the water-gas shift and PROX reactions is determined by the surface properties of ceria. Various oxide dopants (La, Gd) of ceria are used to increase the number of active Au—O—Ce sites, including specifically oxygen ion vacancies.
The stability of gold-ceria catalysts under WGS and PROX reaction conditions is excellent as shown in 100 h-long tests in various reformate-type gases. No deactivation with time-on-stream was observed. The catalyst stability under shutdown conditions was also tested to simulate fuel cell operation under cyclic conditions. When a typical Au—Ce(La)Ox catalyst was cooled down from 300° C. to room temperature in the full fuel gas (containing 26% H2O), it lost more than 50% of its activity, as shown by reheating in the fuel gas to 300° C. Formation of cerium hydroxycarbonate was identified by XRD. Shutdown in dry gas preserved the activity. By comparison, gold-titanium oxide and gold-zirconium oxide did not show any deactivation in shutdown-startup cycles. However, these catalysts have inferior steady-state activity at 300° C. to gold-ceria. Interestingly, shutdown under PROX conditions, did not affect the catalyst activity at 120° C. Structural analyses and activity data from used catalysts can be used to shed light on the above observations and to suggest new catalyst formulations from the performance stability viewpoint.
Catalyst synthesis methods include deposition-precipitation (DP) of gold onto ceria particles as well as preparation of bulk catalysts by the urea gelation/co-precipitation (UGC) method. Details about the preparation techniques are described hereinabove. Different tests to check the stability of gold-ceria over a wide range of temperatures and different WGS gas compositions were conducted. In a 120-hour long stability test of the 4.7Au—Ce(La)Ox (DP, 650° C. calcined) sample at 300° C., little deactivation with time-on-stream was observed in a reformate-type gas mixture containing 7% CO-38% H2O—11% CO2-40% H2—He (space velocity 6,000 h−1 (NTP)). Only initially, there was a drop in activity of 15%. Characterization of the used catalyst found that the ceria crystallite size (7.1 nm) had increased only slightly, while the gold crystallite size grew from 4.6 to 6.8 nm. Therefore, the initial activity loss is not due to the growth of gold particles. The gold crystallite size has little effect on the catalytic activity.
As shown above, H2O plays a very important role in the deactivation of gold-ceria samples in the WGS reaction under shutdown conditions. Interestingly, shutdown under PROX conditions, did not affect the subsequent catalyst activity at 120° C.
H2-TPR was conducted to determine the reducibility of the surface oxygen of the gold-ceria catalysts. We found that oxidation of reduced leached gold-ceria samples takes place readily at room temperature, by O2, H2O or air, but not by CO2. However, only one third of the oxygen storage capacity can be restored at room temperature. When oxidized at higher temperature (350° C.), almost all of the oxygen storage capacity is recovered.
From this information, it is apparent that an oxidative environment, such as a small amount of deliberately added oxygen into a WGS reaction gas stream, preserves the oxidized Au species, such as [Au—O—Ce] moieties, and preserves WGS activity of the catalyst. Overreduction destabilizes in several ways: dispersed oxidized Au can be transformed into metallic Au particles; the cerium oxide surface area is reduced at high temperatures, for example by sintering; and there is formation of CeCO3OH upon shutdown of the catalyst in the presence of water. While there can be reactivation of the catalyst by oxidation at 375° C., this is not a practical method for use in fuel cells, which cannot sustain heating to such temperatures.
While the examples shown in
From the above discussion it is believed that nanoscale cerium oxide is useful for preparation of highly active Au- or Pt-ceria catalysts for the WGS reaction. It is believed that the oxidation state of Au-ceria and Pt-ceria surface is a strong function of the fuel gas composition. It is believed that highly reducing gases cause sintering of ceria and formation of metallic Au. It is believed that, at any temperature, deactivation is suppressed in fuel gases with higher oxygen potential. It has been shown that shutdown-startup deactivates the ceria substrate portion of ceria-based catalysts (or alternatively, affects the behavior of the catalyst as a consequence of the presence of ceria, rather than the presence of the metal).
It has been shown that in some embodiments, addition of a small amount of O2 to the fuel gas can avoid deactivation of ceria (via CeCO3OH formation) during shutdown to RT. It is possible to stabilize Au- and Pt-ceria catalysts in practical WGS systems for fuel cell applications using deliberately added oxygen. It is believed that combined WGS-PROX reactor designs can be realized using Au-ceria catalysts.
While the present invention has been explained with reference to the structure disclosed herein, it is not confined to the details set forth and this invention is intended to cover any modifications and changes as may come within the scope of the following claims.
†The surface metal content was determined by XPS.
‡The bulk composition was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP).
§The particle size was determined by XRD with the Scherrer equation.
∥ CeO2 was calcined at 800° C.
¶The particle size was determined by HRTEM.
aSupport calcined at 400° C. for 10 h; catalyst calcined at 400° C. for 2 h.
bIMP represents the impregnation method.
†The surface composition was determined by XPS.
‡The bulk composition was determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) spectrometry.
aAll materials were calcined at 400 .C for 10 h, unless otherwise noted.
bDetermined by XRD using Scherrer equation.
cCL calcined at 650 .C in air.
dSample calcined at 650 .C in air.
eUsed in 7% CO—38% H2O—11% CO2—33% H2—He for 120 h.
fCL calcined at 400 .C in air.
gNot measured.
hAu(2 0 0).
iNo copper compounds detected by XRD.
jLa-free, precipitated with ammonium carbonate.
aIn 20% H2/N2 gas mixture (50 cm3/min (NTP)), 5 .C/min; all materials were calcined at 400 .C, 10 h, unless otherwise noted.
bCL calcined at 650 .C in air.
cSample calcined at 650 .C in air.
dCL calcined at 400 .C in air.
ex is calculated after subtracting the oxygen from CuO reduction to Cu.
fH2 consumption up to 580 .C.
gLa-free, precipitated with ammonium carbonate.
The U.S. Government funded work described herein was performed under Grant #CTS-9985305 and NIRT grant # 0304515 awarded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Government may have certain rights in the invention.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US05/40245 | 11/4/2005 | WO | 00 | 3/11/2008 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60625334 | Nov 2004 | US |
