Catalytic Combustion of Lean Methane Assisted by Electric Field over Pd/Co3O4 Catalysts at Low Temperature

Abstract

A series of Pd/Co3O4 catalysts were prepared by Self-Propagating High-Temperature Synthesis (SHS) method in this study, and electric field was applied for catalytic combustion of lean methane over Pd/Co3O4 catalysts at low temperature. When electric field was applied, the catalytic combustion performance of Pd/Co3O4 catalysts was greatly improved, and the application of electric field could reduce the load of active element Pd to some extent while maintaining the same efficiency. Based on experimental tests and the analysis results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), H2-temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR) and in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (in-situ DRIFTS), the mechanism of catalytic oxidation of CH4 over Pd/Co3O4 catalysts in electric field was proposed. The catalytic combustion of CH4 occurs only when the temperature is higher than 250 °C normally, but when electric field was applied, the whole process of CH4 oxidation was promoted significantly and the reaction temperature was reduced. Electric field could promote the reduction of the support Co3O4 to release the lattice oxygen, resulting in the increase of PdOx and the surface chemisorbed oxygen, which could provide more active sites for the low-temperature oxidation of CH4. Furthermore, electric field could accelerate the dehydroxylation of CoOOH to further enhance the activity of the catalysts.