title: Highly dispersed gold on zirconia: characterization and activity in low-temperature water gas shift tests.
abstract: Gold-loaded zirconia and sulfated zirconia catalysts were tested in the low-temperature water gas shift reaction. The samples were characterized by N2 adsorption analysis, temperature-programmed reduction, X-ray diffraction, pulse-flow CO chemisorption, FTIR spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. A reference catalyst, Au/TiO2, provided by the World Gold Council was investigated for comparison. CO chemisorption and FTIR data indicate the presence of only highly dispersed gold clusters on the sulfated sample and both small clusters and small particles on the non-sulfated sample. Both gold-zirconia catalysts are much more active than the Au/TiO2 reference sample over all the temperature range investigated. The sample prepared on sulfated zirconia exhibits higher stability than the catalyst on unmodified zirconia. The prominent role in the water gas shift reaction of gold clusters in close contact with the support was deduced.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Venezia, Venezia, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Menegazzo
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pinna
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Signoretto
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Trevisan
authors.forename: Flora
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Boccuzzi
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chiorino
authors.forename: Maela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manzoli
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000737:chemistry; D002254:Carbonates / Q000737:chemistry; D002384:Catalysis; D005740:Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D015040:Zirconium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002254:Carbonates; D005740:Gases; D014867:Water; D006046:Gold; D002248:Carbon Monoxide; D015040:Zirconium; C028541:zirconium oxide