Sonochemically coprecipitation synthesis of CuO/ZnO/ZrO2/Al2O3 nanocatalyst for fuel cell grade hydrogen production via steam methanol reforming

Abstract

In this paper, nanostructured CuO/ZnO/ZrO2/Al2O3 catalysts are synthesized by sonochemically assisted coprecipitation method using different ultrasonic powers to achieve a highly surface area and well dispersed catalyst for fuel cell applications. The prepared nanocatalysts are characterized by various analyses such as XRD, FESEM, FTIR, EDX, and BET techniques. XRD results show that increasing ultrasonic power decreases CuO crystallite size and improves its dispersion. FESEM analysis shows that enhancement of ultrasonic power leads to better morphology and smaller particles with no agglomeration. EDX results prove the existence of all elements used in primary solution and also support the better dispersion of active elements on the nanocatalysts fabricated by higher ultrasonic power. Application of higher ultrasonic power during the coprecipitation synthesis method results higher surface area according to the BET analysis. Finally, the catalytic experiments represents that application of higher ultrasonic power for synthesis of nanocatalysts results higher hydrogen yield due to the better characteristic properties even at low temperatures. So, it is found that the nanocatalyst synthesized at 90W reaches 100% methanol conversion at 200°C with lowest CO production which is desirable as fuel cells feed.