Development of supported copper catalysts for carbon monoxide removal

Abstract

In this study, the effect of calcinations temperature in a reducing atmosphere on the activity of copper catalyst for carbon monoxide oxidation reaction was investigated. It was found in carbon monoxide oxidation reaction that high calcinations temperature has a beneficial effect on copper catalyst, that is, the higher calcinations temperature resulted in higher activity of the catalyst while the amount of active sites was lower. This effect could be explained in terms of the strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) phenomena. Development of copper catalyst could be made by using platinum as a promoter. It appeared that separative impregnation of 0.3 wt.% platinum prior to 8 wt.% copper on alumina support and subsequent calcinations at 500℃ for 7 hours under a reducing atmosphere gave the highest catalyst activity. The synergistic effect of the catalyst was due to the formation of alloy between platinum and copper. In this way, phenomena that are similar to the SMSI phenomena and the augmentation of copper active sites were induced. Additionally, it was found in this study that the strength of carbon dioxide adsorption played an important role on the catalytic activity of the catalyst.