Texture-evolution of copper-based nanocatalyst via hybrid glow discharge plasma-oxalate-precipitation method for hydrogen production from CH3OH/H2O mixture

Hydrothermal, gel oxalate precipitation and non-thermal glow discharge plasma synthesis methods are used for preparation of CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 mixed oxide catalysts. The XRD analysis reveals that the lowest relative crystallinity and crystallite size of different crystallite facets are obtained for CZA-OG-P sample which has been synthesized via hybrid glow discharge plasma-oxalate-precipitation method. The FESEM and TEM analyzes prove that CZA-OG-P nanocatalyst possesses the tiniest particles size, the lowermost aggregation of particles, the most homogenous distribution of particles among all three synthesized samples. Assessment of different samples in steam reforming of methanol shows that CZA-OG-P has the highest methanol conversion and the lowest carbon monoxide production. Also, with the evaluation of the performance of CZA-OG-P sample for long duration use, it is determined that the value of methanol conversion and selectivity of this sample are almost stable. Eventually, deactivation study of the CZA-OG-P used sample is studied through TG/DTG and SEM-EDX analysis.