Evaluation of the use of plasma-assisted processes as standard method for supported catalysts production

Abstract

The combination of plasma processes and heterogeneous catalysis for hydrogen production (H 2) is an innovative green technology, resulting in synergic effects and unique fuel conversion outcomes, such as greater selectivity and lower activation temperature. The present study aims at investigating the feasibility of using plasmaassisted processes as standard technique to produce supported metals catalysts. For this, owing to the higher cost of nickel and cobalt (traditional catalytic metals) compared to other more common metals, iron was selected as testing material. Fe/Al 2 O 3 supported catalysts can be applied in dry reforming of methane (DRM), the main component of natural gas.

The Potential of Non-thermal Plasmas in the Preparation of Supported Metal Catalysts for Fuel Conversion in Automotive Systems: A Literature Overview

“…A study developed by Zhang et al (2016) suggests that plasma species may be formed within pores whose size is > 10 µm. In order to investigate the influence of porous supports in the plasma preparation of supported metal catalysts, a previous study conducted by the authors of this paper (Santos et al, 2018) presented a sputtering deposition of Fe onto fragments of Al 2 O 3 foams with 26 pores/cm and an average pore size of 300 µm in a plasma reactor using 43.4 sccm of Ar for 2 h at a temperature of 450 • C, a pressure of 130 Pa and a voltage of 650 ± 12 V. Despite the large pore size, it was observed that Fe deposition occurred only in the outermost pores. However, this fact does not indicate that the plasma was not able to penetrate the innermost pores, but rather that Fe particles bombarding the support did not have access to internal zones due to collisions and consequent deposition in more external pores.…”