Effect of Sorbitol/Oxidizer Ratio on Microwave Assisted Solution Combustion Synthesis of Copper Based Nanocatalyst for Fuel Cell Grade Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Steam reforming of methanol is one of the promising processes for on-board hydrogen production used in fuel cell applications. Due to the time and energy consuming issues associated with conventional synthesis methods, in this paper a quick, facile, and effective microwave-assisted solution combustion method was applied for fabrication of copper-based nanocatalysts to convert methanol to hydrogen. For this purpose, a series of nanocatalysts with different sorbitol/nitrates ratios were synthesized by microwave-assisted combustion method. Their physicochemical properties were studied by XRD, FESEM, EDX, BET and FTIR analyses. It was found that enhancement of sorbitol/nitrates ratio led to increase of CuO dispersion and specific surface area, as well as smaller, nanometric and homogeneously dispersed particles. These significant characteristic properties especially achieved by CZA(S/N=3) nanocatalyst, resulted in high methanol conversion and hydrogen selectivity even at low temperatures. This effective performance was accompanied by negligible CO production as undesired by-product as well as poison in fuel cell applications.