Inhibition of Ammonia Poisoning by Addition of Platinum to Ru/α-Al2O3 for Preferential CO Oxidation in Fuel Cells

In polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) systems, small amounts of ammonia (NH3) present in the reformate gas deactivate the supported ruthenium catalysts used for preferential oxidation (PROX) of carbon monoxide (CO). In this study, we investigated how the addition of a small amount of platinum to a Ru/alpha-Al2O3 catalyst (Pt/Ru=1:9 w/w) affected the catalyst's PROX activity in both the absence and the presence of NH3 (130 ppm) under conditions mimicking the reformate conditions during steam reforming of natural gas. The activity of undoped Ru/alpha-Al2O3 decreased sharply upon addition of NH3, whereas Pt/Ru/alpha-Al2O3 exhibited excellent PROX activity even in the presence of NH3. Ruthenium K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra indicated that in the presence of NH3, some of the ruthenium in the undoped catalyst was oxidized in the presence of NH3, whereas ruthenium oxidation was not observed with Pt/Ru/alpha-Al2O3. These results suggest that ruthenium oxidation is retarded by the platinum, so that the catalyst shows high activity even in the presence of NH3.