Praseodymia-titania mixed oxide supported gold as efficient water gas shift catalyst: modulated by the mixing ratio of oxides.

Modulating the active sites for controllable tuning of the catalytic activity has been the goal of much research, however, this remains challenging. The O vacancy is well known as an active site in reducible oxides. To modify the activity of O vacancies in praseodymia, we synthesized a series of praseodymia-titania mixed oxides. Varying the Pr : Ti mole ratio (2 : 1, 1 : 2, 1 : 1, 1 : 4) allows us to control the electronic interactions between Au, Pr and Ti cations and the local chemical environment of the O vacancies. These effects have been studied study by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), CO diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (CO-DRIFTS) and temperature-programmed reduction (CO-TPR, H ₂ -TPR). The water gas shift reaction (WGSR) was used as a benchmark reaction to test the catalytic performance of different praseodymia-titania supported Au. Among them, Au/Pr ₁ Ti ₂ O _x was identified to exhibit the highest activity, with a CO conversion of 75% at 300 °C, which is about 3.7 times that of Au/TiO ₂ and Au/PrO _x . The Au/Pr ₁ Ti ₂ O _x also exhibited excellent stability, with the conversion after 40 h time-on-stream at 300 °C still being 67%. An optimal ratio of Pr content (Pr : Ti 1 : 2) is necessary for improving the surface oxygen mobility and oxygen exchange capability, a higher Pr content leads to more O vacancies, however with lower activity. This study presents a new route for modulating the active defect sites in mixed oxides which could also be extended to other heterogeneous catalysis systems.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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