Issue 22, 2013

Mechanisms behind sulfur promoted oxidation of methane

Abstract

The promoting effect of SO2 on the activity for methane oxidation over platinum supported on silica, alumina and ceria has been studied using a flow-reactor, in situ infrared spectroscopy and in situ high-energy X-ray diffraction experiments under transient reaction conditions. The catalytic activity is clearly dependent on the support material and its interaction with the noble metal both in the absence and presence of sulfur. On platinum, the competitive reactant adsorption favors oxygen dissociation such that oxygen self-poisoning is observed for Pt/silica and Pt/alumina. Contrarily for Pt/ceria, no oxygen self-poisoning is observed, which seems to be due to additional reaction channels via sites on the platinum–ceria boundary and/or ceria surface considerably far from the Pt crystallites. Addition of sulfur dioxide generally leads to the formation of ad-SOx species on the supports with a concomitant removal and/or blockage/rearrangement of surface hydroxyl groups. Thereby, the methane oxidation is inhibited for Pt/silica, enhanced for Pt/alumina and temporarily enhanced followed by inhibition after long-term exposure to sulfur for Pt/ceria. The observations can be explained by competitive oxidation of SO2 and CH4 on Pt/silica, formation of new active sites at the noble metal–support interface promoting dissociative adsorption of methane on Pt/alumina, and in the case of Pt/ceria, formation of promoting interfacial surface sulfates followed by formation of deactivating bulk-like sulfate species. Furthermore, it can be excluded that reduction of detrimental high oxygen coverage and/or oxide formation on the platinum particles through SO2 oxidation is the main cause for the promotional effects observed.

Graphical abstract: Mechanisms behind sulfur promoted oxidation of methane

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 Nov 2012
Accepted
11 Feb 2013
First published
11 Feb 2013

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013,15, 8648-8661

Mechanisms behind sulfur promoted oxidation of methane

D. Bounechada, S. Fouladvand, L. Kylhammar, T. Pingel, E. Olsson, M. Skoglundh, J. Gustafson, M. Di Michiel, M. A. Newton and P. Carlsson, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, 8648 DOI: 10.1039/C3CP44289F

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements