Development of novel Ru catalyst of preferential CO oxidation for residential polymer electrolyte fuel cell systems

CO preferential oxidation on a novel Ru catalyst greatly improved in activity and selectivity over a wide temperature range by the pre-treatment of H2 reduction was characterized. The high performance was obtained by increasing the population of surface Ru(0) which improved O2 activation at low temperatures. Methanation of CO on the catalyst can also contribute to the final CO clean-up from ca. 100 to <1 ppm at low temperatures where the influence of CO2 methanation can be ignored.