Simple cerium-triethanolamine complex: Synthesis, characterization, thermal decomposition and its application to prepare ceria support for platinum catalysts used in methane steam reforming

•Cerium-triethanolamine complex was simply synthesized.•Possible structures of the complex were proposed as tricyclic chelated ceratrane.•Pure ceria was obtained from thermal decomposition of the complex.•Platinum doped ceria catalysts were prepared by impregnation.•Platinum doped ceria powders showed good activity toward steam reforming reaction.

Cerium-triethanolamine complex was synthesized by simple complexation method in 1-propanol solvent using cerium(III) chloride as a metal source and triethanolamine as a ligand. The structures of the prepared complex were proposed based on FT-IR, FT-Raman and ESI-MS results as equimolar of triethanolamine and cerium chelated complex having monomeric tricyclic structure with and without chloride anion as another coordinating group known as ceratrane. The complex was used as a precursor for ceria material done by thermal decomposition. XRD result revealed that when calcined at 600 °C for 2 h, the cerium complex was totally turned into pure ceria with cubic fluorite structure. The obtained ceria was then employed to synthesize platinum doped ceria catalysts for methane steam reforming. Various amounts of platinum i.e. 1, 3, 5 and 10 mol percents were introduced on the ceria support by microwave-assisted wetness impregnation using ammonium tetrachloroplatinate(II). The platinum-impregnated ceria powders were subjected to calcination in 10% hydrogen/helium atmosphere at 500 °C for 3 h to reduce platinum(II) to platinum(0). XRD patterns of the catalysts confirmed that the platinum particles doped on the ceria support were in the form of platinum(0). Catalytic activity test showed that the catalytic activities got higher as the amounts of platinum doped increased. Besides, the portions of coke formation on the surface of catalysts were reduced as the amounts of platinum doped increased.

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