Mesoporous Au/TiO2 Catalysts for Low Temperature CO Oxidation

The activity and stability of structurally well defined mesoporous Au/TiO₂ catalysts with different support morphologies and pore sizes for low temperature CO oxidation was investigated by kinetic measurements and in-situ IR spectroscopy. The resulting catalysts with Au particle sizes of ∼3 nm exhibit a high activity for CO oxidation, similar to or exceeding that of highly active standard Au/TiO₂ catalysts with similar size Au nanoparticles and loading, and a significantly lower tendency for deactivation. Possible reasons for the improved performance of these catalysts are discussed.     

Catalytic oxidation of hydrogen over Au/TiO2 catalysts

Selective catalytic oxidation of hydrogen in the presence of hydrocarbons was studied in a fixed bed quartz reactor, over 3 wt%Au/TiO₂ and 5 wt%Au/TiO₂ catalysts. This reaction can be utilised in the production of light alkenes via catalytic dehydrogenation, providing in situ heat to the endothermic dehydrogenation reaction and simultaneously removing a fraction of the produced hydrogen. It is important to avoid the non-selective combustion of the hydrocarbons in the mixture. Both 3 wt%Au/TiO₂ and 5 wt%Au/TiO₂ are active for the combustion of hydrogen, but in a gas mixture with propane and oxygen the selectivity is dependent upon the feed ratio of hydrogen and oxygen. At 550 °C, with propane present, no carbon oxides are formed when the H₂:O₂ ratio is four, but at lower ratios some CO₂ and some CO is formed.     

XPS and DRS of Au/TiO2 catalysts: effect of pretreatment

TiO₂ impregnated with AuCl₃ was subjected to different pretreatments and then characterized by XPS and DRS. After drying at 298 K under vacuum, the catalyst contains highly dispersed, nonmetallic Au species; whereas drying at 393 K in an oven caused the Au to be partially reduced and agglomerate. Further treatments of the oven-dried sample at higher temperatures resulted in the disappearance of Au signals in XPS except the one after a HTR/C/LTR (high-temperature reduction/calcination/low-temperature reduction) sequence. The high-temperature reduction at 773 K shifted the plasmon resonance peak in DRS to higher wavelength, and the following C and LTR treatment did not change the peak position. This peak shifting is interpreted as a change in the electronic status of the Au. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Low temperature CO oxidation over Au/TiO2 and Au/SiO2 catalysts

After a high-temperature reduction (HTR) at 773 K, TiO₂-supported Au became very active for CO oxidation at 313 K and was an order of magnitude more active than SiO₂-supported Au, whereas a low-temperature reduction (LTR) at 473 K produced a Au/TiO₂ catalyst with very low activity. A HTR step followed by calcination at 673 K and a LTR step gave the most active Au/TiO₂ catalyst of all, which was 100-fold more active at 313 K than a typical 2% Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst and was stable above 400 K whereas a sharp decrease in activity occurred with the other Au/TiO₂ (HTR) sample. With a feed of 5% CO, 5% O₂ in He, almost 40% of the CO was converted at 313 K and essentially all the CO was oxidized at 413 K over the best Au/TiO₂ catalyst at a space velocity of 333 h^–1 based on CO + O₂. Half the chloride in the Au precursor was retained in the Au/TiO₂ (LTR) sample whereas only 16% was retained in the other three catalysts; this may be one reason for the low activity of the Au/TiO₂ (LTR) sample. The reaction order on O₂ was approximately 0.4 between 310 and 360 K, while that on CO varied from 0.2 to 0.6. The chemistry associated with this high activity is not yet known but is presently attributed to a synergistic interaction between gold and titania.     

Adsorption and decomposition of ethanol on supported Au catalysts

The adsorption and reactions of ethanol are investigated on Au nanoparticles supported by various oxides and carbon Norit. The catalysts are characterized by means of XPS. Infrared spectroscopic studies reveal the dissociation of ethanol to ethoxy species at 300 K on all the oxidic supports. The role of Au is manifested in the enhanced formation of ethoxy species on Au/SiO₂, and in increased amounts of desorbed products in the TPD spectra. The supported Au particles mainly catalyse the dehydrogenation of ethanol, to produce hydrogen and acetaldehyde. An exception is Au/Al₂O₃, where the main process is dehydration to yield ethylene and dimethyl ether. C–C bond cleavage occurs to only a limited extent on all samples. As regards to the production of hydrogen, the most effective catalyst is Au/CeO₂, followed by Au/SiO₂, Au/Norit, Au/TiO₂ and Au/MgO. A fraction of acetaldehyde formed in the primary process on Au/CeO₂ is converted above 623 K into 2-pentanone and 3-penten-2-one. The decomposition of ethanol on Au/CeO₂ follows first-order kinetics. The activation energy of this process is 57.0 kJ/mol. No deactivation of Au/CeO₂ is observed during 10 h at 623 K. It is assumed that the interface between Au and partially reduced CeO₂ is responsible for the high activity of the Au/CeO₂ catalyst.     

Comparison of AlEt2Cl and ZnCl2 supported on silica gel as catalysts of Diels-Alder reactions. Influence of the nature of the dienophile

Non-modified silica gel, silica gel treated with AlEt₂Cl, and ZnCl₂ supported on silica gel are tested as catalysts in the Diels-Alder reactions of cyclopentadiene (1) with methyl acrylate (2a), (-) -menthyl acrylate (2b) and acrylonitrile (2c). In general, supported catalysts are more efficient than non-modified silica gel. Two different kinds of silica gel are tested and the amount of aluminium incorporated when they are treated with AlEt₂Cl changes from one to another, which influences the chemical yield but not the selectivity of the reactions. In general, aluminium catalysts are more efficient than ZnCl₂-supported ones in the reactions of acrylates, but the latter solid is a better catalyst in the reactions of acrylonitrile (2c). Differences in acid strength and hardness of the catalytic sites are invoked to account for these results.     

Liquid phase selective hydrogenation of phthalic anhydride to phthalide over titania supported gold catalysts

Au/TiO₂ catalysts with different gold loadings were prepared by deposition–precipitation method and used for the liquid phase hydrogenation of phthalic anhydride. All the studied Au/TiO₂ catalysts exhibited excellent activity with high selectivity (>92%) to phthalide under mild reaction conditions (180 °C and 3.0 MPa H₂). Specially, catalysts with 2–3 wt.% gold loading were highly active and selective for the formation of phthalide. When reused, the catalyst showed a certain deactivation, but still was highly selective to phthalide. The deactivation was attributed to the leaching of gold, collapse of the pore structure and accumulation of organic species on the surface.     

Infrared Study of the NO + CO Interaction over Au/TiO2 Catalyst

It was demonstrated that, in contrast to previous results, an NCO surface complex does form on Au/TiO₂ catalysts in the high-temperature reaction of NO + CO. By means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy two new absorption bands at 2285 and 2105-2210 cm^-1, not observed in separate adsorption of reacting gases, were detected during the catalytic reaction. The former is attributed to Au-NCO and the latter to Ti-NCO species. It was assumed that, similar to the case of supported Pt metals, NCO is primarily formed on Au crystallites and then spills over onto titania. This idea was strengthened by the results obtained following the adsorption of HNCO on the catalyst and on the support.     

Selective oxidation of butane on phosphorus-modified silica supported vanadia catalysts

Triethylphosphate impregnation of 2.8 wt% V/SiO₂ and subsequent controlled calcination produced phosphorus-modified supported vanadium catalysts. Phosphorus modification enhanced the yield of maleic anhydride in the partial oxidation of butane. Varying the phosphorus to vanadium atomic ratio from 0 to 2.8 increased the selectivity to maleic anhydride from 0 to approximately 48%. The selectivity was nearly constant up to 20% butane conversion and for different O₂/C₄H₁₀ ratios. The Raman spectra of the phosphorus-modified samples had bands at 1040 and 930 cm^–1, and broad unresolved bands between 580 and 540 cm^–1. It was concluded that the active phases in these samples were -VOPO₄.     

Mechanism of deactivation of Au/Fe2O3 catalysts under water–gas shift conditions

The stability of Au supported catalysts for the water–gas shift reaction was studied. Two types of continuous flow experiments were performed, i.e. temperature-programmed and long-term isothermal stability test. The highest initial rate was obtained for catalysts used without any calcination or other high-temperature treatment. The continuous flow experiments showed that all Au/Fe₂O₃ catalysts deactivated under water–gas shift conditions. The deactivation trend occurred independently on the Au loading, the method of preparation, calcination or high-temperature treatment. The various causes on the deactivation, i.e. the formation of carbon-containing species, the change of Au particles or changes of the support were investigated in terms of DRIFTS coupled with MS, TGA, TEM, N₂ physisorption, ICP, and XRD. Even though stable carbonate and carbonyl surface species were found on the spent catalysts, the quantity of these species indicated that they are not the main cause of the deactivation. Furthermore, the agglomeration of the Au particles was not severe and was not observed for all Au catalysts. The deactivation of Au/Fe₂O₃ was mainly caused by the change of the support. A significant reduction of the surface area of the support is taking place during the water–gas shift reaction as a function of time on stream. This decrease of the surface area can almost solely explain the decrease on the catalytic activity.     

Aerobic oxidation of alcohols over Au/TiO2: An insight on the promotion effect of water on the catalytic activity of Au/TiO2

The unique and significant promotion effect of water has been evidenced by the selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde over Au/TiO₂ catalysts. Water has dual promotional functions in the reaction system: to help form unique microdroplets in a multiphase reaction system and to assist the oxygen adsorption and activation. The conversion of benzyl alcohol at a molar ratio of water to solvent (p-xylene) of 7 is 7 times higher than in the absence of water. The present work has highlighted the potential of Au/TiO₂ catalysts in aerobic oxidation of alcohols in the unique multiphase reaction system with water as promoting solvent.     

Modeling heterogeneous catalysts: metal clusters on planar oxide supports

Model catalysts consisting of Au and Ag clusters of varying size have been prepared on single crystal TiO₂(110) and ultra-thin films of TiO₂, SiO₂ and Al₂O₃. The morphology, electronic structure, and catalytic properties of these Au and Ag clusters have been investigated using low-energy ion scattering spectroscopy (LEIS), temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) with emphasis on the unique properties of clusters <5.0 nm in size. Motivating this work is the recent literature report that gold supported on TiO₂ is active for various reactions including low-temperature CO oxidation and the selective oxidation of propylene. These studies illustrate the novel and unique physical and chemical properties of nanosized supported metal clusters.     

Mesoporous silica supported cobalt oxide catalysts for catalytic removal of benzene

Two types of mesoporous silica SBA-15 with different pore diameter were synthesized with an ageing temperature of 373 K and an ageing temperature of 308 K, respectively; in addition, mesoporous silica with amorphous structure was synthesized by adding organosiloxane as part of the silica source during the synthesis procedure. Mesoporous silica and conventional alumina supported cobalt oxide catalysts were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method. These materials were characterized by FT-IR, nitrogen adsorption–desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) techniques, and the activity of the supported cobalt oxide catalysts for deep oxidation of benzene were evaluated in a fixed-bed reactor. It seems that the pore diameter of the silica increase with the elevation of the ageing temperature. Mesoporous silica supported cobalt oxide catalysts are more active than conventional alumina supported ones. Cobalt oxide can be relatively better dispersed on the surface of mesoporous silica which has larger pore diameter and surface areas. Meanwhile, more silanol groups exist on the surface of amorphous silica, which could induce a strong interaction with the supported cobalt oxide species, leading to poor activity for benzene oxidation.     

On-line deactivation of Au/TiO2 for CO oxidation in H2-rich gas streams

Au-based catalysts, known for ambient temperature CO oxidation, have to provide stable performance of up to 5000 h in order to be commercially applicable in automotive fuel cells. In this report, the on-line deactivation characteristics of Au/TiO₂ in unconventional PROX conditions are discussed. As opposed to CO removal from air, results in this report suggests that carbonates have a minor effect on deactivation of Au/TiO₂ in dry H₂-rich conditions. Also, no conclusive correlation between surface hydration and deactivation was observed. Rather, deactivation appeared to have occurred as a result of an intrinsic transformation in the oxidation state of the active species in the reducing operating conditions; a process which was reversible in an oxidizing atmosphere.     

Copper oxide catalysts supported on ceria for low-temperature CO oxidation

Copper oxide catalysts supported on ceria were prepared by wet impregnation method using finely CeO₂ nanocrystals, which was derived from alcohothermal synthesis, and copper nitrate dissolved in the distilled water. The catalytic activity of the prepared CeO₂ and CuO/CeO₂ catalysts for low-temperature CO oxidation was investigated by means of a microreactor-GC system. The samples were characterized using BET, XRD, SEM, HRTEM and TPR.     

Synthetic natural gas from CO hydrogenation over silicon carbide supported nickel catalysts

Silicon carbide supported nickel catalysts for CO methanation were prepared by impregnation method. The activity of the catalysts was tested in a fixed-bed reactor with a stream of H₂/CO = 3 without diluent gas. The results show that 15 wt.% Ni/SiC catalyst calcined at 550 °C exhibits excellent catalytic activity. As compared with 15 wt.% Ni/TiO₂ catalyst, the Ni/SiC catalyst shows higher activity and stability in the methanation reaction. The characterization results from X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy suggest that no obvious catalyst sintering has occurred in the Ni/SiC catalyst due to the excellent thermal stability and high heat conductivity of SiC.     

Low-temperature preferential oxidation of CO in a hydrogen rich stream (PROX) over Au/TiO2: Thermodynamic study and effect of gold-colloid pH adjustment time on catalytic activity

By simulating CO and H₂ oxidations at thermodynamic equilibrium and studying the catalytic oxidations over Au/TiO₂, preferential oxidation of CO in a H₂ rich stream (PROX) was investigated. During the simulation, at least two cases under different gaseous feeds, H₂/CO/O₂/N₂ = 50/1/0.5/48.5 or 50/1/1/48 (vol.%) were examined under the assumption of an ideal gas and one atmosphere pressure in the reactor. It was found that the addition of 1% O₂ (the latter case) effectively reduced CO concentration to less than 100 ppm in the temperature range between 0 and 90 °C. This range narrowed to between 0 and 50 °C with the addition of 3% H₂O and 15% CO₂ in the feed. The thermodynamic study suggests that 1% CO in a H₂ rich system can be decreased to below 100 ppm within those low temperature ranges, if there is no substantial adsorptions onto the catalyst surface and the reactions rapidly reach equilibrium. During the catalysis reaction study, a well-pH adjusted Au/TiO₂ catalyst was found very active for PROX. CO conversions at the reactor outlet were close to those at equilibrium. Au/TiO₂ used in this work was prepared via deposition-precipitation (DP) method. The influence of gold colloid pH (at 6) adjustment time on gold loading, gold particle size and chloride residue on TiO₂ surface was detected by atomic absorption (AA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). A pH adjustment time of at least 6 h for the preparation of gold colloids at room temperature was demonstrated to be essential for the high catalytic activity of Au/TiO₂. This was attributed to the smaller gold particle and the less chloride residue on the catalyst surface.     

Photo-electrochemical properties of amorphous WO3 supported on TiO2 hybrid catalysts

In this work, we have carried out ivestigations on photo-electrochemical energy conversion and storage on WO₃/TiO₂ hybrid materials. The band gap excitation of the hybrid WO₃/TiO₂ having an amorphous WO₃ phase led to an effective photo-charging to form a tungsten bronze structure by the intercalation of protons while a reversible discharging through de-intercalation could also be observed.     

Preparation, Characterization and Photocatalytic Activity of TiO2 Formed from a Mesoporous Precursor

A mesoporous TiO₂ precursor has been prepared by the hydrothermal condensation of tetrabutyltitanate in presence of an alkylamine template by three different methods. The surfactants were removed from as-synthesized TiO₂ by calcination and solvent extraction methods. A potential photocatalyst, predominantly present as an anatase phase, was produced in the latter case. The samples were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, low-temperature N₂ adsorption-desorption measurement and solid state UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. The photocatalytic activities of all TiO₂ samples were compared using the degradation of phenol as a probe reaction.     

Catalytic combustion of benzene over supported metal oxides catalysts

Catalytic combustion of benzene over supported metal oxides has been investigated. The catalysts have been prepared by incipient wetness method and characterized by XRD, FT-Raman, ESR and TPR. Among supported metal oxides, CuO_x, supported on TiO₂ is found to have the highest activity for benzene oxidation. In addition, among the catalysts of copper oxide supported on TiO₂, A1₂O₃ and SiO₂, titania-supported catalyst (CuO_x/TiO₂) gives the highest catalytic activity. CuO_x/TiO₂ (Cu loading 5.5 wt%) shows the total oxidation of benzene at about 250 °C. From the ESR and FT-Raman results, the CuO dispersed on the TiO₂ surface acts as an active site of CuO_x/TiO₂ catalysts on the oxidative decomposition of benzene. The catalytic activity gradually increases with an increase of Cu loading on TiO₂. When Cu loading reaches 5.5 wt%, the total conversion temperature is lowered to 300 °C. However, the catalytic activity considerably decreases at 7 wt% Cu loading. The catalytic activity increased with an increase of oxygen concentration but the concentration of benzene showed no difference in the benzene conversion. This result suggests that the rate determining step is the adsorption of oxygen.