The water gas shift (WGS) reaction (CO+H2O=H2+CO2) is an essential process for hydrogen regulation/upgrading in various energy-related chemical operations. Even though higher reaction temperature renders higher reaction rate, from thermodynamic points of view, WGS is an equilibrium-limited reaction that is favored at low temperature. Particularly, the potential application in fuel cell requires the commercial WGS catalyst to be highly active, stable and energy-efficient. Under these criteria, decreasing the reaction temperature will not only give a considerable raise to the CO equilibrium conversion but also deduce the energy consumption, and match the working temperature of on-site hydrogen generation and consumption units. Here by confining Au layered clusters over α-MoC substrate, we successfully constructed an interfacial catalyst system for ultra-low temperature WGS reaction. We report a Au/α-MoC catalyst for low temperature water gas shift reaction (TOF=1.01 molCO/(molAu.s) at 393 K). The interaction between α-MoC and Au alters the structure of Au species, which confers the Au clusters layered structure and unique electronic structure towards CO adsorption. While water is easily dissociated over MoC site even at 293 K, the CO adsorbed on the Au site is apt to react with the surface OH at interfacial MoC site at slightly higher temperature. The outstanding activity comes from the synergy between the atomic Au layers and the α-MoC substrate.

Au/α-MoC  catalyst for the low temperature water gas shift reaction

255th National Meeting (2018)

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