Enhancement of catalytic performance of graphene supported Pt catalysts by Ni and W for hydrogen gas production by hydrothermal gasification of biomass-derived compounds

A more practical approach to reduce the cost of the precious metal catalysts is to replace some of the precious metal particles with non-expensive metals that do not cause considerable loss of catalytic performance. In the present study, Ni and W metal particles deposited on graphene support along with and without Pt particles by ultrasound-assisted wet impregnation that followed chemical and thermal reduction process. The catalytic activities of the resulted catalysts were evaluated by aqueous-phase reforming (APR), an hydrothermal gasification process using glucose solution as feed. Although metal particles on Ni-based catalysts were well dispersed on the support, they had larger particle sizes with a broader size distribution compared to W-based catalysts. The combination of Ni and W metals with Pt showed positive synergy and the catalytic performance of bimetallic catalysts significantly enhanced for conversion of glucose to hydrogen.