Partial oxidation of methane over argon plasma reduced Pt/Al2O3

FUEL 73

Peipei Huo, Xin-li Zhu, and Chang-jun Liu. Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Pt/Al2O3 catalyst for partial oxidation of methane was prepared by argon glow discharge plasma reduction, instead of hydrogen reduction at elvated temperature. According to IR analyses with CO absorption, Pt4+ was effectively reduced into metallic Pt by argon glow discharge plasma at room temperature. At low reaction temperatures, the plasma-reduced catalyst shows slightly higher CH4 conversion, H2 selectivity and CO selectivity, compared to hydrogen reduced catalysts. With increasing reaction temperature, the plasma-reduced and hydrogen reduced catalysts show almost the same activity. The reduction of catalyst using room temperature glow discharge might provide us a cheap, safe and convenient way to reduce catalysts for hydrogen production.