AbstractsPreferential oxidation (PROX) of carbon monoxide in excess hydrogen has been studied on low Pt loading (0.5-1 wt%) catalysts supported on a series of FSM-type mesoporous silica materials. A support effect has been observed, in which the catalytic activities are closely related with the pore diameter of the support, despite their similar specific surface areas. Pt nanoparticles supported on mesoporous silica with 4.0 nm pore diameter possess the highest CO conversion over a wide range of reaction temperature, i.e. ca. 100% CO conversion in 298-423 K. As a comparison, the Pt particles in small pore supports (1.8 nm) exhibit poor performance under the same reaction conditions, which is barely comparable to the Pt catalysts on amorphous silica. The discrepancy in the mesoporous silica is proposed to be related with the different activities of surface silanols in various supports.

The olefin epoxidation is one of the most important reactions in chemical industry. Metal oxide supports often cause drawbacks in catalytic activity and selectivity, which has been overcome by introducing hydrophobic organic groups onto the oxide supports. The present study utilizes ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3 and CMK-1) as structurally defined hydrophobic catalyst support. Well-dispersed tantalum oxides supported on the ordered mesoporous carbon were prepared. Their application in catalytic epoxidation of cyclooctene demonstrates that the tantalum oxide catalysts on the ordered mesoporous carbon supports show higher performances than those of the catalysts supported on activated carbon and ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15.

new preparation process of nano-sized Ta-based cathode catalyst on highly ordered mesoporous carbon (MPC) for polymer electrolyte fuel cell has been investigated. The TaON/MPC hybrid catalyst showed high surface area (~1,200m2/g) and high onset potential for the oxygen reduction reaction (EORR~0.85V vs. RHE).