CHAPTER 4: Preferential Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide in Hydrogen Stream over Gold Catalysts

Catalysis by gold nanoparticles is a fascinating and a growing field of interest due to its wide range of application. The development of innovative supported gold catalysts is a crucial factor towards developing sustainable chemical processes. In the past three decades, scientific studies on gold nanoparticles have tuned their chemical and physical properties to meet the requirements of industrial and practical applications, especially in the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide, which plays a crucial role in cleaning up reformate hydrogen gas in polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Titanium dioxide has emerged as an excellent support for gold nanoparticles. In this review we discuss the preparation methods of gold nanoparticles supported on titania and the influence of various promoters in deciding its catalytic activity for the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide in a hydrogen-rich stream (PROX) reaction.