Supercritical deposition of Pt on SnO2-coated Al2O3 foams: Phase behaviour and catalytic performance Original Research Article

Deposition and reduction of an organometallic platinum complex from a supercritical Pt(COD)Me2/CO2 solution was carried out to produce Pt/SnO2 catalysts supported on Al2O3 foams for CO oxidation at moderate temperatures. The phase behaviour of the complex in supercritical carbon dioxide was investigated to find the optimum pressure and temperature conditions for the deposition. For the Pt(COD)Me2/CO2 mixture, the melting point decreased with increasing pressure from 378 K at 0.1 MPa to 360 K at 25.6 MPa. Additional investigations showed that the solubility of Pt(COD)Me2 in CO2 increases from 5.9 × 10−4 mol/mol at 11.2 MPa and 313 K to 3.4 × 10−3 mol/mol at 29.6 MPa and 353 K. The supercritical deposition yielded catalysts with highly dispersed platinum nanoparticles of approx. 3 nm having a narrow size distribution and thus, a superior activity towards oxidation of carbon monoxide in comparison to a catalyst prepared by the conventional aqueous impregnation of Pt.