Reduced SrTiO3-Supported Pt-Cu Alloy Nanoparticles for Preferential Oxidation of CO in Excess Hydrogen

In this work, we employ Pt-Cu alloy nanoparticles supported on reduced-SrTiO3 (RSTO) to obtain a poisoning-resistant catalyst in the desired operative temperature range. The changing Cu concentration in the Pt-Cu bimetallic alloy elucidates the trend of changing efficiency, selectivity and stability of CO conversion over the bimetallic catalyst. Among the various compositions, we find that Pt40Cu60­ is the most effective catalyst to target CO oxidation by competing with the the undesirable H2 oxidation. Here, we report interesting results on the trade-off between the selectivity of CO conversion as well as the maximum CO conversion (%) over the catalyst. The difference in CO adsorption over monometallic Pt and bimetallic Pt-Cu catalysts is well-reflected by the controlled adsorption-desorption studies.