High-Yield Hydrogen Production from Aqueous Phase Reforming over Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Supported Catalysts

Abstract

Pt and Pt–Co bimetallic catalysts supported on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were synthesized by a wet reduction–decoration method and tested for catalytic activity of aqueous phase reforming of ethylene glycol. The Pt decorated on SWNT achieves a catalyst mass time hydrogen yield of 890 micromole gcat–1 min–1, which is higher than the reported results for Pt–alumina catalyst. Experiments also show that this catalyst has better activity than Pt supported on activated carbon with a similar surface area, showing the advantage of SWNTs as a catalyst support. Factors affecting the aqueous phase reforming activity, such as temperature, pressure, WHSV, catalyst particle size, etc., were investigated. We have also explored Pt–Co bimetallic catalysts by combining the structural characterization results with the reactivity results and revealed that bimetallic catalysts may promote the catalyst performance in two different ways: either via the formation of Pt–Co alloy phase or via the synergistic catalytic activities of individual Pt and Co particles. The Pt–Co–SWNT catalyst achieved a hydrogen production activity as high as 4.6 mmol gcat–1 min–1.