Carbon monoxide oxidation metal-support interaction

Titania-supported Metals. - After reduction at 473 K, platinum-group metals supported on Ti02 chemisorbed both hydrogen and carbon monoxide in quantities indicative of moderate-to-high dispersion, but following reduction at 773 K chemisorption was drastically lowered e.g., H/Mt <0.01 for Pt, Ir, and Rh, 0.05-0.06 for Pd and Ru, and 0.11 for Os). Agglomeration, encapsulation, and impurities were eliminated as possible causes and a strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) was proposed. Titania is not unique in its SMSI properties and 11 oxides used to support iridium were classified as follows ... 

It is known that strong acids act as oxidants. Consequently, acidic surface hydroxyls can also be oxidizers. This reaction potential of surface OH groups is well expressed when they interact with supported metals. For example, it was reported that adsorption of carbon monoxide on dispersed supported metaUic rhodium leads to formation of geminal dicarbonyls of Rh (163). 

Many commercial heterogeneous catalysts are not impregnated in a uniform fashion. For example, various precious-metal catalysts consist of an exterior active shell and an inert core in order to enhance the effectiveness factor. Several automobile-muffler catalysts have a carbon-monoxide-oxidation catalyst in one shell and an NOx-reducing catalyst in another shell. Our understanding of the reaction-diffusion interaction facilitated this rational design of the optimal profile of catalyst-activity distribution and shape. It would be of both practical importance and academic interest to develop a rational procedure for enhancing the performance of metallocenes by their nonuniform impregnation on the support. 

The last explanation for methanol formation, which was proposed by Ponec et al., 26), seems to be well supported by experimental and theoretical results. They established a correlation between the gfiethanol activity and the concentration of Pd , most probably Pd. Furthermore, Anikin et al. (27) performed ab initio calculations and found that a positive charge on the palladium effectively stabilizes formyl species. Metals in a non-zero valent state were also proposed by Klier et al. (28) on Cu/ZnO/Al O, by Apai (29) on Cu/Cr O and by Somorjai for rhodium catalyts (30). Recently results were obtained with different rhodium based catalysts which showed the metal was oxidized by an interaction with the support (Rh-0) (on Rh/Al 0 ) by EXAFS ( -32) and by FT-IR ( ) and on Rh/MgO by EXAFS ( ). The oxidation of the rhodium was promoted by the chemisorption of carbon monoxide (, ). ... 

In this chapter, recent results are discussed In which the adsorption of nitric oxide and its Interaction with co-adsorbed carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and Its own dissociation products on the hexagonally close-packed (001) surface of Ru have been characterized using EELS (13,14, 15). The data are interpreted In terms of a site-dependent model for adsorption of molecular NO at 150 K. Competition between co-adsorbed species can be observed directly, and this supports and clarifies the models of adsorption site geometries proposed for the individual adsorbates. Dissociation of one of the molecular states of NO occurs preferentially at temperatures above 150 K, with a coverage-dependent activation barrier. The data are discussed in terms of their relevance to heterogeneous catalytic reduction of NO, and in terms of their relationship to the metal-nitrosyl chemistry of metallic complexes. 

The activity of supported Pt catalysts for methanol synthesis from C0-H2 is considerably enhanced when the metal is supported on oxides which exhibit themselves appreciable activity for MeOH synthesis. Furthermore it is found that the rate of methanol formation on Pt-supported catalyst is increased when Th02, Ce02 were mechanically mixed with the Pt catalyst. Such behaviour is typical for bifunctional catalysts. It has already been reported that Th02, Ce02 adsorb carbon monoxide without dissociation. Such activated CO can be hydrogenated to form a formyl species, the formyl species interacting with lattice oxygen will produce a formate intermediate. 

Catalysts are prepared by one of two methods. The support material is impregnated with the metal ion, then heated in air at a high temperature to form the metal oxide. Alternatively, when the support material is an oxide such as alumina, the two oxides are coprecipitated and dried in air. In such case the catalyst is activated by treatment with a reducing agent such as hydrogen, metal hydride, or carbon monoxide. The function of the support appears to be more than simply providing a large surface area. Some type of interaction must occur between the metal oxide and support because the oxide alone behaves differently. 

A key question is whether the diatomic molecule in its interaction with metal surfaces remains molecular or dissociates into carbon and oxygen. Broden et al. (3) predicted, by the perturbation of molecular orbitals for CO adsorbed, that only iron could dissociate CO. However, other metals in Group VIII such as nickel (A) ruthenium (5) and rhodium (6) can dissociate CO. Recently Ichikawa et al.(7) observed that disproportionation of CO to CO2 and carbon occurs on small particles of silica-supported palladium. These results show that carbon deposition phenomena may occur via either dissociation of CO on the metals used or disproportionation of CO to CO and carbon on small platinum particles. Cant and Angove (8) studied the apparent deactivation of Pt/Si02 catalyst for the oxidation of carbon monoxide and they suggested that adsorbed CO forms patches and that oxygen atoms are gradually consumed. 

Carbon monoxide is a very weak base largely used for the surface characterisation of cationic centres on metal oxide surfaces. Low temperature CO adsorption experiments allow the observation of weakly acidic but active adsorption sites, including smface hydroxyl groups and alkali cations, whose interaction with CO is not observed in room or higher temperature experiments. The interaction of CO with strongly oxidising cations can also be revealed at lower temperature experiments. A summary of metal sites revealed by low temperature CO adsorption on some alumina-supported catalysts is reported in Table 18.1. 

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