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Copper oxide nanoparticles confined in TiO2 nanotubes for the water–gas shift reaction: promotional effect of potassium

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Abstract

Previous work showed that the copper oxide nanoparticles confined in titania nanotubes (Cu-in-TiO2NT) can effectively enhance the water–gas shift (WGS) activity. The WGS activity is directly related to the concentration of active copper species and oxygen vacancies (Ov). The addition of potassium is found to enhance WGS activity of copper catalysts to some extent. Herein, the K-promoted copper oxide (2 wt% Cu) nanoparticles confined in TiO2 nanotubes catalysts (Cu-in-K/TiO2NT) with different potassium contents were synthesized and investigated for the WGS reaction. The K-promoted catalysts exhibit the enhanced WGS activity. Especially, the Cu-in-K20/TiO2NT with the molar ratio of K/Cu = 20 displays twofold higher WGS activity compared with the Cu-in-TiO2NT. XRD, Raman, XPS, H2-TPR and in situ DRIFTS have verified that the addition of appropriate potassium can make active copper species bound with oxygen of the TiO2, leading to a partial reduction of TiO2 to TiO2-x, which is beneficial to form Cu–Ov–Ti site for the WGS reaction.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This study are funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (Grant Number 2021A1515010445), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 51802305) and the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (Grant Number 202102020402). The authors thanks for the support from the Analytical & Testing Center, Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Yaqian Chen, Juan Li, Xiangnan Li, Fengying Luo, Zeyu Wang, Liangpeng Wu & Xinjun Li

  2. College of Materials Science and Opto-Electronic Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yaqian Chen, Fengying Luo & Zeyu Wang

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  1. Yaqian Chen
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  2. Juan Li
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Correspondence to Juan Li or Xinjun Li.

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Chen, Y., Li, J., Li, X. et al. Copper oxide nanoparticles confined in TiO2 nanotubes for the water–gas shift reaction: promotional effect of potassium. Journal of Materials Research 36, 4475–4484 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-021-00416-x

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