Engineering oxygen vacancies on Tb-doped ceria supported Pt catalyst for hydrogen production through steam reforming of long-chain hydrocarbon fuels

Steam reforming of long-chain hydrocarbon fuels for hydrogen production has received great attention for thermal management of the hypersonic vehicle and fuel-cell application. In this work, Pt catalysts supported on CeO2 and Tb-doped CeO2 were prepared by a precipitation method. The physical structure and chemical properties of the as-prepared catalysts were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, H2 temperature programmed reduction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results show that Tb-doped CeO2 supported Pt possesses abundant surface oxygen vacancies, good inhibition of ceria sintering, and strong metal-support interaction compared with CeO2 supported Pt. The catalytic performance of hydrogen production via steam reforming of long-chain hydrocarbon fuels (n-dodecane) was tested. Compared with 2Pt/CeO2, 2Pt/Ce0.9Tb0.1O2 and 2Pt/Ce0.5Tb0.5O2, the 2Pt/Ce0.7Tb0.3O2 has higher activity and stability for hydrogen production, on which the conversion of n-dodecane was maintained at about 53.2% after 600 min reaction under 700 oC at liquid space velocity of 9 ml·(g cat)–1∙h–1. 2Pt/CeO2 rapidly deactivated, the conversion of n-dodecane was reduced to only 41.6% after 600 min.