Preparation and characterization of Pt-modified Co-based catalysts through the microemulsion technique: Preliminary results on the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis

•Different Pt-modified cobalt catalysts synthesized through microemulsion method.•Quite similar cobalt particle sizes obtained for the same calcination temperature.•Pt incorporation increased CO conversion in FTS.•Simultaneous reduction of cobalt and platinum preferable to consecutive one.•Influence of both cobalt reducibility and metal–support interaction in catalytic performance. The influence of the addition of small amounts of platinum (0.1–0.25% wt) to cobalt-based systems on Fischer–Tropsch synthesis was investigated. The solids were synthesized through microemulsion technique using TiO2 as the support. The best catalytic performance was achieved using Synperonic 13/6.5 as the surfactant. In all cases, the presence of platinum led to an increase in CO conversion which could be ascribed to the promotion of cobalt reducibility as evidenced by XPS. Moreover, the simultaneous reduction of cobalt and platinum precursors during synthetic procedure (ME1) was preferable to the consecutive one (ME2) probably as a result of a better Co–Pt interaction in the former case, as evidenced by TPR. TPR, Raman and XPS data also suggested that not only the presence of Co0 but also the appearance of Co–TiO2 interactions favor the catalytic performance and that in general those interactions are stronger for ME1 solids.