The role of surface copper species in Cu-Fe composite oxide catalysts for the water gas shift reaction

The water-gas shift reaction is studied using a series of Cu-Fe composite oxide catalysts, which were prepared by co-precipitation, deposition-precipitation, sol-gel, solid state reaction and mechanical mixing method, respectively. Distinct crystal structure and texture of the as-prepared catalysts were formed, and their reduction properties as well as surface basicities were modulated. The CO conversion in the water gas shift reaction is found to be correlation well with the Cu components in the temperature range of 200-350 °C, while the CO conversion is mainly controlled by Fe3O4 sites at temperature above 350 °C. The characterization results demonstrate that the formation of CuFe2O4 is ideal to obtain well dispersed Cu crystals; the weak basic sites are positive to the WGS reaction; and the strong interaction between copper and iron species can result in good Cu dispersion. The catalyst that was fabricated by the co-precipitation method, possesses the largest amount of CuFe2O4 and weak basic sites, as well as highly dispersed Cu crystals, thus showing the best catalytic activity and stability for the WGS reaction in our cases.