A Fibrous Perovskite Nanomaterial with Exsolved Ni-Cu Metal Nanoparticles as an Effective Composite Catalyst for External Steam Reforming of Liquid Alcohols

The conversion of hydrogen to power via combined external reforming of liquid alcohol and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology is an effective approach to address future energy challenges. In this study, an La0.8Ba0.1Mn0.8Ni0.1Cu0.1O3 (LBMNCu) perovskite nanofiber with high porosity was synthesized with a modified electrostatic spinning method, which acted as an efficient catalyst for steam reforming of liquid alcohols (methanol and ethanol). After reduction, fine metallic Ni-Cu was uniformly distributed throughout the perovskite nanofiber surface. The obtained composite displayed a methanol conversion above 99.9% at 450 °C and an ethanol conversion above 99% at 600 °C, which was highly superior to the common Ni-Cu/Al2O3 catalyst. The catalytic performance of our assembled catalysts also remained stable in methanol and ethanol atmospheres for 50 h and no coking was detected. Furthermore, when the reformed gas was fed into a Y0.08Zr0.92O2 (YSZ)-based SOFC system, the open circuit voltage remained around 1.1 V at 700 °C for 50 h accordingly, without coking, and the voltage remained virtually unchanged at 0.7 V for 50 h at 700 °C and 400 mA cm−2 during galvanostatic discharge mode, indicating that using LBMNCu nanofiber as a catalyst for hydrogen production and utilization is an efficient strategy. The interaction of the in situ exsolved metallic nanoparticles and nanofibrous perovskite could also be a promising approach for designing a highly active catalyst for H2 generation.