Selective Reduction of Oxygen on Non‐Noble Metal Copper Nanocatalysts

Journal Article · 14 January 2020 · Energy Technology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201901213 · OSTI ID:1998813

Kuhn, Andrew N. ^[1]; Ma, Yanling ^[1]; Zhang, Cheng ^[1]; Chen, Zhitao ^[1]; Liu, Mingyan ^[1]; Lu, Yongqi ^[2]; Yang, Hong  ^[1]

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1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 114 Roger Adams Laboratory, MC-712, 600 South Mathews Avenue Urbana IL 61801 USA
2. Illinois State Geological Survey University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 615 East Peabody Drive Champaign IL 61820 USA

Efficient removal of molecular oxygen (O ₂ ) from flue gas is necessary to capture and utilize carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) from fossil‐fuel sources. Herein, the catalytic reduction of O ₂ in simulated flue gases using alumina‐supported copper (Cu) nanostructures is presented. The Cu catalyst outperformed conventional palladium systems for the selectivity toward CO ₂ over carbon monoxide (CO). Varying the reactant feed ratio can lead to structural rearrangements at the surface of Cu nanoparticles, resulting in significant differences in catalytic activity. Under optimal conditions, a favorable Cu@CuO _x core‐shell structure is observed to exhibit both excellent activity and selectivity to CO ₂ . The simulated flue gas is purified from 85% to >99.9% (v/v) CO ₂ after passing the catalytic system. The catalyst also exhibits high stability, showing only ≈0.1% drop in CO ₂ after 10 h on stream. This design marks progress toward the sequestration of CO ₂ and the development of non‐noble catalysts by tuning their dynamic nanostructures under controllable reaction conditions.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• Grant/Contract Number: FE0029161
• OSTI ID: 1998813
• Journal Information: Energy Technology, Journal Name: Energy Technology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 8; ISSN 2194-4288
• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: Germany
• Language: English