Photocarriers-enhanced photothermocatalysis of water-gas shift reaction under H2-rich and low-temperature condition over CeO2/Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 catalyst

Aiming for cost-efficient hydrogen purification for application of fuel cells, a low-temperature water-gas shift (WGS) reaction over noble-metal-free catalyst to attain completed CO conversion in H2-rich atmosphere is required but still a great challenge. Herein, we present a configuration of semiconductor-bridging active sites in CeO2/Cu1.5Mn1.5O4 catalyst to work for the photothermal WGS reaction under light irradiation; due to the injection of photocarriers from CeO2 into active sites, a 61 % reduction of apparent activation energy enabled the WGS reaction to occur at 225°C. Notably, the catalyst delivered a 96.6 % of CO conversion in 30 min, and subsequently, 0.18 vol.% of CO was left in the system, which matches the industrial standard (< 1 vol.%). This study provides a new design idea on the semiconductor-coupled photothermal catalyst to boost catalytic performance.