High density ultra-small Cu nanoparticles with abundant oxygen vacancies for efficient hydrogen evolution from MeOH/H₂O

Efficient release of H-2 with negligible CO impurities from sustainable MeOH/H2O has become a promising goal for on -board hydrogen generator. However, hydrogen release kinetics still face challenges. In this work, the Cu/ ZnO/CeO2 catalyst with high density ultra -small Cu nanoparticles and abundant oxygen vacancies were prepared for intensifying hydrogen evolution in aqueous phase reforming of methanol (APRM). The optimized 55% Cu/ ZnO/CeO2 catalyst (Cu NPs of 3.8 nm, Cu loading of 55.89 wt%, oxygen vacancies of 2.316 x 10(15) spins g(-1)) exhibited an excellent H-2 evolution rate of 58.39 mu molgcat - 1 s-1 even at low temperature of 210 C-degrees, which was 2.1fold enhancement than that of commercial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst. Characterizations and experiments revealed that ZnO/CeO2 intensified the strong metal -support interaction (SMSI), which anchored the Cu NPs, generated abundant oxygen vacancies and adjusted electronic structure to form Cu-0-Cu+-Ov active sites for facilitating the kinetics of APRM.