Abstract:
This research investigated the reduction behavior and the oxidation number of copper
zirconium oxide modified by calcium oxide. All catalysts were calcined at 650 o
C. The catalysts
were namely Cu/ZrO2
, Cu/CaO, Cu/ZrO2
_CaO_IM and Cu/ZrO2
_CaO_MI. Investigation of
hydrogen temperature programmed reduction was carried out via four comparative methods i.e.
Method 1) and 2) weight decomposition by Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) under absolutely
mixing gas 5%H2
/N2
and under 5%H2
/N2
gas mixture arising from in-house mixing lines
repectively. The Cu/CaO catalyst gave the highest percentage of reducibility at 338% via Method
1) and 336% via Method 2). Method 3) was carried out by Micromeritics chemisorb 2750
machine to obtain H2 Temperature Programmed Reduction profiles which gave Cu/CaO (117%)
which is the highest percentage of reducibility. The results via Method 4) employed X-ray
adsorption near edge structure (XANES) to investigate the oxidation number of copper species
i.e. Cu0
, Cu1+ and Cu2+ occurring under hydrogen temperature programmed reduction. Method 4)
was the most reliable method which directly measured copper species via XANES and the
reducibility were reasonable as Cu/ZrO2
_CaO_MI (100%)> Cu/ZrO2
_CaO_IM (77%)> Cu/CaO
(69%)> Cu/ZrO2
(51%). The resulting reducibility obtained via Method 1), 2) and 3) was more
than a hundred possibly due to the over decomposition of Ca(OH)2 weight occurring under gas
mixture in Method 1) and 2) or chemical adsorption of hydrogen on the reduced catalyst surface
that can cause the higher amount of hydrogen consumption in Method 3). Hydrogen concentration
in H2 temperature programmed reduction apparently effected on the reduction temperature. The
lower hydrogen concentration can cause the higher reduction temperature or vice versa.