Engineering of the Cu+/Cu0 interface by chitosan-glucose complex for aqueous phase reforming of methanol into hydrogen

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy 2023-10, Vol.48 (87), p.33948-33959
• Main Authors: Wu, Xiuting, Zheng, Zefeng, Ma, Liang, Hu, Changsong, Pi, Yunhong, Wang, Tiejun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abundant Cu0/Cu+ interfaces; Aqueous-phase reforming; Chitosan-glucose-encapsulated catalyst; H2 production
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2023.05.147

The aqueous-phase reforming of methanol(APRM)via non-precious metal heterogeneous catalysts is highly desirable, but challenging. Herein, we report a highly efficient copper catalyst encapsulated by chitosan-glucose (CS-G) conjugate with high metal loading of 35 wt% for H2 generation from APRM. The optimized Cu@CS19-G1-300 catalyst exhibited exceptional activity of 1.39 × 105 μmolH2/gcat/h at low temperature of 210 °C, which was ∼4.5 times higher than that of commercial CuZrAl catalysts (2.88 × 104 μmolH2gcat−1h−1). The chitosan-glucose conjugate acted not only as the main carbon support for Cu dispersion, but also as adsorbent to stablize as many Cu ions as possible. And meanwhile, with abundant Cu+/Cu0 interface sites due to the reducing effect of glucose, the water gas shift reaction (WGSR) was intensified and thus displayed excellent selectivity toward CO by-product. This specific catalyst construction for H2 production from APRM exhibits great potential of on-site H2 supply for polymer membrane fuel cells. [Display omitted] •Cu catalyst encapsulated by chitosan-glucose conjugate was in-situ constructed.•Stable chitosan-glucose support help uniformly disperse and engineer Cu+/Cu0 interface.•Aqueous phase reforming of methanol was conducted under milder conditions (190°C–210 °C, 2 MPa).•The Cu@CS/G afforded excellent H2 productivity and selectivity by reinforced WGS process.•No catalyst deactivation was detected even after 5th recycle runs.