Urea-Nitrate Combustion Synthesis and Physicochemical Characterization of CuO(20)/ZnO(30)/Al2O3(50) Nanocatalyst from Different Precursors Used in Hydrogen Production from Methanol

In recent years، steam reforming of methanol has been attracted more attentions، because this process produces hydrogen as clean fuel that useful for fuel cells. In this study the influence of precursors of Al2O3 in CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 nanocatalyst preparation by the combustion method was studied. The nanocatalysts properties are evaluated by employing different kinds of analysis techniques such as XRD، FESEM، EDX، FTIR and BET. The results illustrated that precursor type has significant influences on phase structure، morphology، surface area and functional groups. XRD analysis showed that the nitrate based nanocatalyst has smaller CuO crystals with better dispersion. Also FESEM analysis confirmed the nanocatalyst with nitrate based alumina has homogeneous and nano particles in comparison to the nanocatalyst with AlOOH based alumina. Evaluation of CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 nanocatalyst showed nitrate based sample due to mentioned well-defined structure had superior activity in feed conversion than similar AlOOH based catalyst.