Effect of preparation methods on Pt/alumina catalysts for the hydrogen iodide catalytic decomposition

Three kinds of Pt/alumina catalysts were prepared by impregnation-hydrogen reduction, impregnation-hydrazine reduction and electroless plating methods. Their differences in the structures, specific areas and particle sizes were characterized by XRD, BET and TEM, respectively. Furthermore, their catalytic activities for the hydrogen iodide (HI) decomposition were evaluated in a fixed bed reactor. The results show that the catalyst 5%Pt/Al2O3 prepared by the electroless plating has the optimum catalytic properties for HI decomposition owing to the high dispersion of the platinum nano-particles (<5 nm) on the alumina supports.