Novel La1-xMxCo0. 5Ni0. 5O3 perovskite with low CO selectivity for enriched hydrogen production from methanol reforming for HT-PEMFCs application

Methanol steam reforming (MSR) is considered as an effective way to provide on-line hydrogen production technology for fuel cell applications, and perovskite catalyst is considered as an efficient and potential catalyst for this technology. A series of La 1-x M x Co 0.5 Ni 0.5 O 3 perovskite catalysts doped with yttrium(Y) and cerium(Ce) at A site were prepared by sol-gel method. The catalysts were characterized by SEM, EDS, BET, XPS and XRD techniques. The results of XRD, SEM and BET show that the main phase of the catalyst is perovskite when a small amount of Y or Ce is doped. However, with the increase of Y and Ce doping levels, some other new phases appeared. The appearance of the new phase of yttrium oxide promotes the richer pore structure of the catalyst, increases the pore volume and pore diameter, and enhances the active catalytic sites. More importantly, it also promotes the increase of the specific surface area, allowing the active component particles to maintain a very uniform dispersion state, effectively preventing the aggregation of active components and improving the catalytic activity. From the XPS results of Y-doped catalyst with x of 0.9, Y-O bonds belonging to Y 2 O 3 can be observed, the presence of yttrium carbonate species can promote the formation of oxygen vacancies, thereby accelerating the catalytic reaction and enhancing the catalytic performance. After multiple cycles of start-stop stability experiments, the results showed that the CO selectivity of the gas product was 1.8% and remained unchanged without significant fluctuations. The novel yttrium-doped catalyst with x of 0.9 developed in this study is a potential catalyst which can directly provide hydrogen-rich source for HT-PEMFCs applications. Graphical Abstract The novel La 0.1 Y 0.9 Co 0.5 Ni 0.5 O 3 catalyst, with high specific surface area and well-developed pore structure, exhibits excellent low CO selectivity and stability in the MSR process, which can be a promising catalyst for directly providing hydrogen-rich source for HT-PEMFCs applications. Highlights Y and Ce doped La 1-x M x Co 0.5 Ni 0.5 O 3 catalyst is applied to produce enriched H 2 for HT-PEMFCs at first time. Excessive Y doping produces yttrium carbonate species which can promote the formation of oxygen vacancies, and enhancing the catalytic performance. Proper doping of Y and Ce at A site is beneficial to reduce the CO selectivity of the catalyst at low temperature. Catalyst developed in this study have