High-Yield Hydrogen Production from Aqueous Phase Reforming over Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Supported Catalysts

Pt and Pt-Co bimetallic catalysts supported on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were synthesized by a wet reduction-decoration method and tested for catalytic activity of aqueous phase reforming of ethylene glycol. The Pt decorated on SWNT achieves, a catalyst mass time hydrogen yield of 890 micromole gcat(-1) min(-1), which is higher than the reported results for Pt-alumina catalyst. Experiments also show that this catalyst has better activity than Pt supported on activated carbon with a similar surface area, showing the advantage of SWNTs as a catalyst support. Factors affecting the aqueous phase reforming activity, such as temperature, pressure, WHSV, catalyst particle size, etc., were investigated. We have also explored Pt-Co bimetallic catalysts by combining the structural characterization result's with the reactivity results and revealed that bimetallic catalysts may promote the catalyst performance in two different ways: either via the formation of Pt-Co alloy phase or via the synergistic catalytic activities of individual Pt and Co particles. The Pt-Co-SWNT catalyst achieved a hydrogen Production activity as high as 4.6 mmol gcat(-1) min(-1).