Manganese Based Perovskites in Ethanol Steam Reforming
2
Experimental
BET surface specific area was measured with a
Micromeritics AutoChem II 2920, after a degassing treat-
ment (2 h at 350 °C).
2
.1 Catalyst Preparation
Bi Sr MnO (BSM), Bi Sr Mn0.7Cu0.3O (BSMC),
2.3 Catalytic Tests
0
.5 0.5
3
0.5 0.5
3
Bi Sr Mn Ni O (BSMN), La Sr Mn Cu
O
3
0
.5 0.5
0.7
0.3
3
0.5 0.5
0.7
0.3
(
LSMC) and La Sr Mn Ni O (LSMN) powders were
Steam reforming of ethanol was conducted in a continu-
ous-flow fixed-bed quartz reactor at atmospheric pressure.
A water–ethanol solution (H O:C H OH ratios of 3:1 and
0
.5 0.5
0.7 0.3
3
synthetized by citrate route [8], starting from adequate
precursors: Bi(C H O ) (99.99% purity, Sigma-Aldrich),
6
5
7
2
2
5
Sr(NO ) (≥ 98%, Sigma-Aldrich), La O (99.9%,
12:1, having S/C=1.5 and S/C=6, respectively) was fed by
a syringe pump at 8.3 μl/min speed, and vaporized at 170 °C
on a SiC bed, using Ar as carrier gas, (flux controlled by
Brooks mass flow controller). Effluent gases were analysed
by Agilent 7820 gas-chromatograph, equipped with thermal
conductivity (TCD) and flame ionization (FID) detectors.
3
2
2
3
Aldrich), Mn(CH COO) ·4H O (≥99.0%, Sigma-Aldrich),
3
2
2
CuO (98%, Sigma-Aldrich), Ni(NO ) ·6H O (≥ 97%,
3
2
2
Sigma-Aldrich). After the dissolution of the precursors,
achieved with water in case of nitrates or with nitric acid
(
≥65% Sigma-Aldrich) for oxides and bismuth citrate, cit-
ric acid monohydrate (≥ 99.0%, Sigma-Aldrich) is added
in amount of 1.9:1 with respect of the total amount of cati-
ons. Ammonia (30–33% in water, Sigma-Aldrich) is added
while stirring, until pH 6.5 is reached. The solution is then
concentrated by evaporation at 90 °C until the formation of
a gel that is heated for 2 h at 400 °C. The ash-like, spongy
resulting material is ground into powder and then calcined
for 6 h at 1000 °C in air atmosphere.
Water, ethanol, acetaldehyde and CO were separated by the
2
PoraPak-Q column; for hydrogen, CO and methane analysis
a Molsieve ms5A column was used. The catalytic behaviour
was investigated with or without an activation treatment (in
5%H /Ar stream) specifically chosen on the basis of TPR
2
measurements.
3
Results and Discussion
2
.2 Catalyst Characterization
3.1 Characterization
X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) were collected with a
Bruker D8 Advance automatic diffractometer, with Cu Kα
wavelength (λ = 0.154 nm) at a voltage of 40 kV and a
current of 40 mA.
As it is observed from XRD patterns (Fig. 1), the substitu-
tion of lanthanum with bismuth occurs without drawbacks
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was recorded
by a Perkin Elmer PHI 5600ci Multi Technique System,
using AlKα radiation (1486.6 eV) working at 250 W.
The spectrometer was calibrated by assuming the bind-
ing energy (BE) of the Au 4f line to be 84.0 eV with
7
/2
respect to the Fermi level. Both extended spectra (sur-
vey—187.85 eV pass energy, 0.5, 0.05 s/step) and detailed
spectra (for Bi 4f, La 3d, Sr 3d, Mn 2p, Cu 2p, Ni 2p, O 1s
and C 1s—23.5 eV pass energy, 0.1, 0.1 s/step) were col-
lected. The standard deviation in the BE values of the XPS
line is 0.10 eV. The atomic percentage, after a Shirley-
type background subtraction [9] was evaluated by using
the PHI sensitivity factors [10, 11]. The peak positions
were corrected for the charging effects by considering the
C 1s peak at 285.0 eV and evaluating the BE differences.
Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) measures
were collected with a Micromeritics AutoChem II 2920.
Experiments were performed in a downstream fixed bed
Fig. 1 XRD patterns of Bi Sr MnO (red), Bi0.5Sr0.5Mn0.7Cu
O
3
quartz tube reactor with a 5%H /Ar stream at 50 sccm/min,
0.5 0.5
3
0.3
2
(
yellow), Bi Sr Mn Ni O (green), La Sr Mn Cu O (blue)
0.5 0.5 0.7 0.3 3 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.3 3
raising temperature from RT to 900 °C at 10 °C/min speed;
and La Sr Mn Ni O (black) powders. Symbols stand for: aster-
0
.5 0.5
0.7 0.3
3
hydrogen consumption was monitored by a TCD detector.
isk (perovskite); filled rhombus (CuO); filled inverted triangle (NiO);
cross (Bi O ); filled square (Bi Mn O )
2
3
2
4
10
1
3