Influence of ambient gas on microwave-assisted combustion synthesis of CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 nanocatalyst used in fuel cell grade hydrogen production via methanol steam reforming

The effect of different ambient gases for preparation of CuO-ZnO-Al2O3 nanocatalysts by the microwave assisted solution combustion method was studied. Air, nitrogen and carbon dioxide as the ambient atmospheres were injected during the solution combustion synthesis method. The fabricated nanocatalysts were characterized by various techniques such as XRD, FESEM, TEM, EDX, FTIR and BET analyses. It was understood that injection of nitrogen during synthesis of nanocatalysts led to high dispersion of Cu crystallites as the active sites for the steam methanol reforming reaction. Moreover, appropriate interaction between CuO and ZnO particles was achieved due to better morphology of the nanocatalyst synthesized by N2 as the ambient gas than other samples. Finally, high methanol conversion with proper products selectivity were achieved by the nanocatalyst synthesized by injection of N2 during the microwave assisted combustion synthesis method due to significant superiority in its physicochemical properties.