Removal of excess amount of hydrogen in a catalytic route is a safety measure to be implemented in fuel cell technologies and in nuclear power plants. Hydrogen and oxygen activation are crucial steps for hydrogen combustion that can be achieved by modifying supports with suitable noble metals. In the present study, Pt- and Pd-substituted CoO-ZrO (CZ) were synthesized using PEG-assisted sonochemical synthesis. Ionic states of Pt and Pd in CZ supports were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Pd and Pt improved H and O activation extensively, which reduced the temperature of 50% conversion (T) to 33 °C compared with the support (CZ). The activation energy of PdCZ catalyst was decreased by more than 2 folds (13.4 ± 1.2 kJ mol) compared with CZ (34.3 ± 2.3 kJ mol). The effect of oxygen vacancies in the reaction mechanism is found to be insignificant with Pt- and Pd-substituted CZ supports. However, oxygen vacancies play an important role when CZ alone was used as catalyst. The importance of hydrogen and oxygen activation as well as the oxygen vacancies in mechanism was studied by H-TPD, H-TPR, and in situ FTIR spectroscopy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.