Development of Hydrophobic Platinum-Doped Carbon Aerogel Catalyst for Hydrogen-Deuterium Exchange Process at High Pressure

Abstract

The use of catalysed exchange of deuterium (D) between hydrogen (H) gas and liquid water using the bithermal hydrogen water (BHW) process is a promising and environment-friendly approach for the production of heavy water. However, the use of this approach is limited by the lack of a suitable catalyst that has good activity at high operating pressures required for practical applications. We report the development of hydrophobic platinum-doped carbon aerogel (PtCA) catalyst which shows good catalytic activity for H/D isotope exchange reactions at operating pressures up to 20 bar.