Low-temperature hydrogen production from methanol steam reforming on Zn-modified Pt/MoC catalysts

Methanol steam reforming (MSR) is a promising process to produce hydrogen suitable for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, but the development of catalysts with high activity and selectivity at low temperature is highly needed. Here, a series of Zn-modified Pt/MoC catalysts with different Zn loadings were prepared and used to produce hydrogen by MSR at low temperature. The addition of small amounts of Zn to Pt/MoC not only favors the formation of α-MoC1-x phase, but also enhances the Pt dispersion and the interaction between α-MoC1-x and Pt active sites, leading to increased catalytic activity for MSR. The optimal 0.5Zn-Pt/MoC catalyst exhibits superior hydrogen production activity with exceptionally low CO selectivity at low temperatures (120–200 °C). Overall, this work offers insight into the structure-activity relationship and stability in Zn-modified Pt/MoC catalysts for MSR, which will be helpful to the design of MSR catalysts with high activity and stability at low temperature.