Highly dispersed Ru on K-doped meso–macroporous SiO2 for the preferential oxidation of CO in H2-rich gases

• Ru nanoparticles can be highly dispersed on K-doped meso–macroporous SiO2.
• The size of Ru particle has an obvious effect on the catalytic activity of K-Ru/SiO2.
• K-Ru/meso–macroporous SiO2 is highly active and selective for CO-PROX.

In this work, highly dispersed Ru nanoparticles which had a uniform small nanoparticle size were supported on K-promoted meso–macroporous SiO2 by using the simple impregnation method. The effect of the size of Ru nanoparticle on the catalytic performance for the preferential oxidation of CO (CO-PROX) in H2-rich gases was investigated. Meanwhile, the related mechanism on size effect was discussed. The catalysts were characterized by using techniques of transmission electron microscopy, temperature-programmed reduction and CO-chemisorption. The results indicate that the K-promoted Ru/SiO2 catalyst with the size of metal Ru particles at about 7 nm showed obviously higher turnover frequency (TOF) than that of K-Ru/SiO2 with smaller size of Ru particles of around 2 nm. As for oxidizing CO to CO2 on specific weight of ruthenium, the catalyst with the smaller size of metal Ru exhibited better performance owing to its much higher specific surface area of metal Ru. The catalyst with the smaller size of Ru nanoparticles showed much better methanation formation resistance for CO and CO2. The K-promoted and highly dispersed Ru on SiO2 exhibited excellent activity and selectivity for the CO-PROX reaction.