The Water-Gas Shift (WGS) reaction (CO + H2O ? CO2 + H2) is an important industrial chemical process for hydrogen production. Our work focuses on the catalysis of the WGS reaction over Au and Pt nanoparticles supported on various metal oxides. WGS rate per total mole Au varies as Au/Al2O3<Au/ZrO2~Au/CeO2<Au/TiO2 when compared at same average particle size. The H2O order decreases with an increase in WGS turnover rates of supported Pt catalysts. For the supported Pt, the catalysts with lower TOR (Pt/Al2O3 and Pt/SiO2) exhibit lower water order compared to the catalysts with higher TOR (Pt/TiO2, Pt/CeO2, Pt/ZrO2 and Pt/La2O3).We interpret this data to show that the underlying oxide support plays a direct role in activating H2O and the more active oxide supports have higher relative surface concentrations of hydroxyl species.

Determination of effect of the oxide support for the water-gas shift reaction over supported Au and Pt nanoparticles

246th National Meeting (2013)

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