Keywords

Alcohols, Catalysis, Nanoparticles, Platinum

Abstract

The use of heterogeneous catalysis is well established in chemical synthesis, energy, and environmental engineering applications. Supported Pt nanoparticles have been widely reported to act as catalysts in a vast number of chemical reactions. In this report, the performance of Pt/ZrO2 nanocatalyst for the decomposition of methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, and 2-butanol is investigated. The potential of each alcohol for the production of H2 and other relevant products in the presence of a catalyst is studied. All the alcohols studied show some decomposition activity below 200°C which increased with increasing temperature. In all cases, high selectivity towards H2 formation is observed. With the exception of methanol, all alcohol conversion reactions lead to catalyst deactivation at high temperatures (T > 250°C for 2-propanol and 2- butanol, T > 325°C for ethanol) due to carbon poisoning. However, long-term catalyst deactivation can be avoided by optimizing reaction conditions such as operating temperature. In addition, the performance of Pt/γ-Al2O3 is evaluated in the oxidation of 2-propanol. Pt nanoclusters of similar size (~1 nm diameter) but different structure (shape) were found to display distinctively different catalytic properties. All the systems studied achieve high conversion (~ 90%) below 100°C. However, flatter particles display a lower reaction onset temperature, demonstrating superior catalytic performance. Acetone, CO2, and water are generated as products indicating that both partial and complete oxidation are taking place. A number of techniques including AFM, XPS, TEM, HAADF-TEM, XAFS as well as packed-bed reactor experiments were used for sample characterization and evaluation of catalytic performance.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Cuenya, Beatriz Roldan

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003081

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003081

Language

English

Release Date

May 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering and Computer Science, Engineering and Computer Science -- Dissertations, Academic

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Engineering Commons

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