Cobalt oxide supported on alumina catalysts prepared by various methods for use in catalytic afterburner of PEM fuel cell

In the present work we have investigated the influence of the preparation method on the physicochemical and activity features of CoOx/γ-Al2O3 catalysts used for the combustion of anode tail gas produced in a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The catalysts prepared contain 21% (w/w) Co and have been calcined at 850 °C. Three different impregnation methodologies have been followed: incipient wetness impregnation (IWI) using a cobalt nitrate aqueous solution, incipient wetness impregnation using a mixed cobalt nitrate–nitrilotriacetic acid (IWI-nta) aqueous solution and equilibrium deposition filtration (EDF) using a cobalt nitrate aqueous solution. The catalysts were characterized using nitrogen adsorption for determining the specific surface area, the pore volume and the mean pore diameter as well as using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS; UV–vis), LRS, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). Catalytic activity measurements were performed in the temperature range 250–850 °C using a continuous flow fixed-bed micro-reactor working under atmospheric pressure and fed with a reaction mixture consisted of 15% H2/3% CO/1.1% CH4/20% O2 balanced in He.The EDF methodology imposed interfacial deposition and resulted to the formation of an almost bi-dimensional surface precipitate. Upon calcination, this surface precipitate provided a very well-dispersed CoOx amorphous species strongly interacted with the support surface and thus hardly reducible as well as relatively small Co3O4 supported nanocrystals (14.3 nm). The first phase is the predominant one. Therefore, EDF resulted to a catalyst with the highest cobalt surface and specific surface area. The conventional IWI imposed bulk (solution) precipitation and thus induced relatively large supported crystallites which upon calcination provided relatively large supported Co3O4 nanocrystals (19.8 nm) and CoAl2O4 as well. The formation of the relatively large nanocrystals and the insertion of cobalt inside the γ-alumina lattice to form CoAl2O4 may be responsible for the lowest cobalt surface obtained in this catalyst. The presence of the nitrilotriacetic acid in the impregnating solution induced the exchange of the water ligands of the Co(II) aqua complex present in the cobalt nitrate solution with organic ligands and thus the bulk precipitation of an organometallic complex. The more bulky organic ligands decreased the cobalt-support interactions. Thus, the insertion of cobalt inside the γ-alumina lattice and the formation of CoAl2O4 are inhibited upon calcination of the IWI-nta sample. This may be responsible for the relatively higher cobalt surface obtained with respect to that achieved in the IWI sample though the size of the Co3O4 nanocrystals is larger in the IWI-nta sample (25.8 nm). At relatively high reaction temperatures all catalysts exhibited almost the same activity for oxidation reactions. In contrast, at low reaction temperatures the EDF catalyst proved to be more active for the CH4 production as well as for the oxidation of H2 and CO. This behaviour may be attributed to the favourable physicochemical characteristics of this catalyst.