Novel Hydrophobic Pt/Inorganic Catalyst Used in Hydrogen Isotope Exchange Reaction

To improve the performance of hydrophobic catalyst and extend its using range, this research adopted the porous columnar inorganic carriers (ø=5 mm) to prepare the hydrophobic catalyst used in hydrogen isotopes exchange reaction, the hydrophilic carriers became hydrophobic with the nanostructured CeO₂ coating and the catalyst were then fabricated by convenient impregnation method. The samples were characterized by XRD、SEM、EDX、XPS and CO adsorption. The catalytic activity were tested through catalytic exchange reaction between hydrogen and saturated water vapor to investigate the effect of micro structured CeO₂ on the catalyst properties. It turned out that the nano-CeO₂ coating could build favorable hydrophobic environment for the catalysts and had almost no influence on the pore structure properties of carriers. Although the hydrophobic coating would lead to the decrease of Pt particle dispersion and metallic Pt content, it could make the Pt particles mostly deposit on the surface layer of the catalysts, which would make more Pt particle participate in the reaction at the same time. The catalytic activity of the novel Pt/inorganic catalyst could reach to 80% of the mature Pt/organic catalyst. After being flushed by water for 12 weeks, the catalytic activity of Pt/inorganic catalyst decreased less than 5%. The novel hydrophobic catalyst with good activity and stability was practical and had great application prospects.