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Selective Reduction of Oxygen on Non‐Noble Metal Copper Nanocatalysts
Author(s) -
Kuhn Andrew N.,
Ma Yanling,
Zhang Cheng,
Chen Zhitao,
Liu Mingyan,
Lu Yongqi,
Yang Hong
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.201901213
Subject(s) - nanomaterial based catalyst , catalysis , noble metal , flue gas , carbon monoxide , selectivity , selective catalytic reduction , copper , chemical engineering , oxygen , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , palladium , nanostructure , materials science , nanotechnology , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
Efficient removal of molecular oxygen (O 2 ) from flue gas is necessary to capture and utilize carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from fossil‐fuel sources. Herein, the catalytic reduction of O 2 in simulated flue gases using alumina‐supported copper (Cu) nanostructures is presented. The Cu catalyst outperformed conventional palladium systems for the selectivity toward CO 2 over carbon monoxide (CO). Varying the reactant feed ratio can lead to structural rearrangements at the surface of Cu nanoparticles, resulting in significant differences in catalytic activity. Under optimal conditions, a favorable Cu@CuO x core‐shell structure is observed to exhibit both excellent activity and selectivity to CO 2 . The simulated flue gas is purified from 85% to >99.9% (v/v) CO 2 after passing the catalytic system. The catalyst also exhibits high stability, showing only ≈0.1% drop in CO 2 after 10 h on stream. This design marks progress toward the sequestration of CO 2 and the development of non‐noble catalysts by tuning their dynamic nanostructures under controllable reaction conditions.