Effect of nanosized gold particle addition to supported metal oxide catalyst in methanol oxidation

Gold has rarely been utilized as a catalytic component because of its poor affinity to chemical species. It is however known that nanosized gold particles promote the dissociation of oxygen or hydrogen. In this study, alumina-supported metal oxide catalysts were prepared by impregnation method and applied to methanol oxidation. The dispersion form and size of the gold particles were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In the results, the maximum catalytic activity was obtained over the ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst, and the optimum loading was 4 wt%. Furthermore, nano-sized gold particles at various loadings were added to ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst by deposition method. The gold particles on Au/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst were well dispersed and the catalyst activity was remarkably increased compared to ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst. The role of gold particles in the increased catalytic activity is discussed and a possible mechanism is presented.