Artículos SCI

In this work an in situ XRD and XANES study of two gold catalysts supported on iron-promoted ceria–alumina carriers was carried out during the water-gas shift reaction (WGS). The first catalyst, Au/CeO2–FeOx/Al2O3, was prepared using a commercial alumina support in order to obtain a Ce–Fe oxide solid solution and in the second one, Au/FeOx/CeO2–Al2O3, an iron oxide monolayer was deposited onto a ceria–alumina commercial support to promote its redox properties. Catalytic activities in the WGS were remarkably different for both systems. The catalytic activity of the Au/CeO2–FeOx/Al2O3 catalyst was higher than the one shown by the Au/FeOx/CeO2–Al2O3 catalyst that resulted active at much higher temperatures. In situ XRD demonstrates the formation of magnetite (Fe3O4) during the WGS reaction and the presence of big gold particles, ca. 21 nm in diameter, in the low-activity system. This in contrast to the high-activity system that shows undetectable gold nanoparticles and the absence of diffraction peaks corresponding to magnetite during the WGS. The data obtained using in situ XANES states that Ce4+ species undergo reduction to Ce3+during the WGS for both catalysts, and also confirms that in the high-activity catalyst iron is just present as Fe3+ species while in the low-activity catalyst Fe3+ and Fe2+ coexist, resulting in iron spinel observed by XRD. These results allow us conclude that the Au/CeO2–Fe2O3/Al2O3 catalyst is a suitable catalyst for WGS when avoiding the formation of magnetite, in such a case Fe3+ species favors reduction and water splitting increasing the catalytic activity in the WGS reaction.

Metallic supported structured catalysts were obtained by washcoating AluchromYHf monoliths with an Au/TiO2 catalyst. The powder catalyst was synthesized by DAE (direct anionic exchange) method. Using this catalyst, a stable slurry was prepared and used to washcoat the monoliths. TEM and SEM studies revealed that gold nanoparticles in the Au/TiO2 powder catalyst had an average diameter of 3–4 nm, but during the preparation of the structured catalyst, aggregate Au particles of the slurry reached diameters of 9 nm. Before coating, Aluchrom YHf monoliths were thermally treated to generate a homogeneous and well-adhered oxide rough surface layer, mainly composed of α-Al2O3 whiskers, which favored the anchoring of the catalyst. The catalytic layer deposited was well attached and contained not only the Au/TiO2 catalyst but also metallic oxides formed from stainless steel components that diffused through the oxide scale. The structural characterization was performed by XRD, XRF, TEM, SEM, GD-OES and SBET.

The catalytic activity of the powder and structured catalysts was tested in the oxidation of the CO reaction. Catalysts demonstrated to be active at room temperature. After a first activation run, and in spite of their larger gold particle size, the catalytic activities of the structured catalysts overcame those of the powder catalyst. This improvement is probably due to the segregation of the transition metal oxides toward the surface oxide scale.