Recent Advances in Preferential Oxidation of CO in H2 Over Gold Catalysts

Recent studies have revealed that supported gold catalysts exhibit comparable or superior catalytic performance relative to platinum group metals, especially at low temperatures, in the preferential oxidation of CO under excess H₂ (CO-PROX). Complete conversion of CO with good selectivity of O₂ for CO₂ and highly stable catalyst performance in the presence of CO₂ and H₂O are considered to be essential for the successful development of CO-PROX catalysts for application in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. The performance of supported gold catalysts in the CO-PROX reaction has been shown to be dependent on the characteristics of gold (size, oxidation state, and its interaction with other metal/oxides), nature of the support (size, composition, preparation method, presence of promoters, and doping with other metal ions), and reaction conditions (temperature and feed composition). Complete CO conversion has been achieved in the presence of certain gold catalysts below 100 °C. The unresolved issues in CO-PROX include the undesired oxidation of H₂, detrimental effects of CO₂ and/or H₂O, and long-term stability of the catalysts. To address these issues, the catalytic activity of gold supported on simple oxides such as TiO₂, CeO₂, Al₂O₃, and Fe₂O₃ has been improved dramatically by the addition of promoters, alteration of the gold-oxide support interface, and modification of the oxide supports. Recently, nanoporous gold has also been recognized to be promising for this reaction. This review highlights recent developments of unsupported and supported gold catalysts for the CO-PROX reaction.