Catalytic performance of copper oxide supported α-MnO2 nanowires for the CO preferential oxidation in H2-rich stream

Abstract

In this article, the catalytic activity of the copper catalysts with different loadings of copper oxides supported on α-MnO2 nanowires prepared by the simple hydrothermal route was studied in the CO preferential oxidation reaction. The x-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption/desorption, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, H2-temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses were used to characterize the synthesized samples. The obtained results showed that the 10 wt% CuO/MnO2 catalyst with the highest specific surface area and the lowest particle size demonstrated the highest CO conversion and CO2 selectivity in this reaction. The good catalytic performance of this catalyst was due to the beneficial synergistic interaction between copper and manganese. However, adding CO2 and/or H2O to the feedstock decreased the conversion and selectivity. Moreover, the effect of different parameters such as calcination temperature, O2/CO ratio, gas hourly space velocity (GHSV), and pretreatment conditions were investigated.