Development of catalytic membranes over PdAu selective films for hydrogen production through the dry reforming of methane

Abstract

PdAu composite membranes were applied in the preparation of catalytic membranes for hydrogen production. The APTES surface modification of PdAu membranes synthesized by sequential electroless deposition was carried out. Grafted samples were analyzed by means of XPS, SEM-EDS and DRIFT. XPS data showed that surface saturation was reached when a 0.5 v/v % of APTES was employed. The morphological study of the samples showed that after APTES functionalization a slightly change on the PdAu microstructure occurred. It was observed that the APTES-functionalized samples were stable after heating to 823 K for 2 h. In addition, these membranes retained their hydrogen permeability without detrimental effect over their selectivity. Catalytic Ru and Rh-based membranes were synthesized by the dip-coating method. The membranes were evaluated in the dry reforming of methane at 823 K. Even though only low conversions were obtained, these were slightly higher than those obtained for a fixed-bed reactor with the same amount of catalyst.