Surface catalytic methanation, effect

It is obvious that one can use the basic ideas concerning the effect of alkali promoters on hydrogen and CO chemisorption (section 2.5.1) to explain their effect on the catalytic activity and selectivity of the CO hydrogenation reaction. For typical methanation catalysts, such as Ni, where the selectivity to CH4 can be as high as 95% or higher (at 500 to 550 K), the modification of the catalyst by alkali metals increases the rate of heavier hydrocarbon production and decreases the rate of methane formation.128 Promotion in this way makes the alkali promoted nickel surface to behave like an unpromoted iron surface for this catalytic action. The same behavior has been observed in model studies of the methanation reaction on Ni single crystals.129... 

The effect of precursor-support interactions on the surface composition of supported bimetallic clusters has been studied. In contrast to Pt-Ru bimetallic clusters, silica-supported Ru-Rh and Ru-Ir bimetallic clusters showed no surface enrichment in either metal. Metal particle nucleation in the case of the Pt-Ru bimetallic clusters is suggested to occtir by a mechanism in which the relatively mobile Pt phase is deposited atop a Ru core during reduction. On the other hand, Ru and Rh, which exhibit rather similar precursor support interactions, have similar surface mobilities and do not, therefore, nucleate preferentially in a cherry model configuration. The existence of true bimetallic clusters having mixed metal surface sites is verified using the formation of methane as a catalytic probe. An ensemble requirement of four adjacent Ru surface sites is suggested. 

Methanatlon Studies. Because the most effective way to determine the existence of true bimetallic clusters having mixed metal surface sites Is to use a demanding catalytic reaction as a surface probe, the rate of the CO methanatlon reaction was studied over each series of supported bimetallic clusters. Turnover frequencies for methane formation are shown In Fig. 2. Pt, Ir and Rh are all poor CO methanatlon catalysts In comparison with Ru which Is, of course, an excellent methanatlon catalyst. Pt and Ir are completely inactive for methanatlon In the 493-498K temperature range, while Rh shows only moderate activity. 

Kim et al. [123] conducted the kinetic study of methane catalytic decomposition over ACs. Several domestic (South Korea) ACs made out of coconut shell and coal were tested as catalysts for methane decomposition at the range of temperatures 750-900°C using a fixed-bed reactor. The authors reported that no significant difference in kinetic behavior of different AC samples was observed despite the differences in their surface area and method of activation. The reaction order was 0.5 for all the AC samples tested and their activation energies were also very close (about 200 kj/mol) regardless of the origin. The ashes derived from AC and coal did not show appreciable catalytic effect on methane decomposition. 

A systematic attempt to correlate the catalytic effect of different surfaces with their adsorptive capacity was made by Taylor and his collaborators. Taylor and Burns, for example, investigated the adsorption of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and ethylene by the six metals nickel, cobalt, palladium, platinum, iron, and copper. All these metals are able to catalyse the hydrogenation of ethylene to ethane, while nickel, cobalt, and palladium also catalyse the reduction of carbon monoxide and of carbon dioxide to methane. 

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