The Bombay Technologist

A Review on the Applications of Self Regenerating Catalysts

Ronak Upadhyay

Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai-400019

Shaaz Khatib

Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai-400019

Atmin Parekh

Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai-400019

Keywords: Self-Regenerating, Perovskites, Kearby Catalyst, Fischer Tropsch Synthesis, CO Detection, Vinyl Monomers.

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Abstract

Metallic catalysts have a tendency to lose their activity over time due to various reasons such as change in oxidation state of the metal, deposition of material on the catalyst or structural rearrangement of the catalysts. Metallic catalysts (such as Pt based catalysts) are often rare and expensive. Therefore, there is currently an interest in developing self-regenerating catalysts which independently recover their activity after deactivation without human intervention and which thus have a high turnover number. Our aim is to review the applications of these catalysts and study their mechanism of regeneration in various systems. Perovskites based catalyst systems have shown indication that they can be used instead of the conventional catalyst used in the automobiles to treat exhaust gases, in a cost effective manner. A modification of the crystallographic structure has enhanced the regenerative ability of cobalt nanoparticles, have found application in the Fischer Tropsch Synthesis. Self-healing non precious metal-based catalyst provides an economic alternative in hydrogen production by water splitting with sunlight as the main energy source. Palladium based self-healing catalysts are used in CO detection devices. ‘Kearby’ Catalyst, a self-regenerating catalyst used in the preparation of the vinyl monomers via catalytic dehydrogenation.