Tailored Noble Metal Nanoparticles on ?-Al2O3 for High Temperature CH4 Conversion to Syngas

The simple deposition of tailored Rh or Pt nanoparticles (NP) on ?-Al2O3 results in active, selective, and stable catalysts for partial oxidation of methane (POM) to syngas. The NP were prepared by the ethylene glycol method in strong alkaline solution. This approach was found to be a promising way of providing active metallic NP for catalyzing the POM reaction. NP sizes determined by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) in solution and by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on alumina were very close. This result highlights the possibility of easy pre-characterization of NP by the former method. Supported Rh NP are intrinsically more active in the POM reaction than Pt NP and also showed a superior performance compared with a conventionally prepared Rh catalyst, even if the latter had been pre-reduced. Mechanistic investigations in the temporal analysis of products (TAP) reactor indicate that the higher selectivity of well-defined Rh-NP is determined by their lower activity for consecutive CO transformations.