Methanol steam reforming (MSR) is a promising reaction for H2 production for use in PEM fuel cells. In contrast to Pd on inert support oxides, which catalyzes methanol decomposition to CO and H2, Pd supported on ZnO and Ga2O3 has shown excellent activity and selectivity to the steam reforming reaction yielding H2 and CO2. This substantial difference in reactivity has been attributed to the formation of an alloy/intermetallic compound between Pd and reduced Zn or Ga. We studied the bulk and surface properties of Pd/ZnO and Pd/Ga2O3 MSR catalysts by IR spectroscopy of adsorbed CO, by in situ XPS, XRD and in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy during reduction and under reaction conditions. The obtainable product distribution can additionally be influenced by the reactivity of the Ga2O3 support, which can catalyze reverse water-gas shift ((R)WGS) as unwanted side-reaction. Therefore we applied FT-IR spectroscopy and temperature-programmed reduction for a systematic study of the interaction with CO, CO2, H2 and H2O aiming at a detailed understanding of the processes occurring on the surface of Ga2O3 during (R)WGS.
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Contact local ICGM : Didier Tichit (équipe MACS)