Modified Nanoscale Zirconia as Gold Support for the Low-Temperature Methanol Steam Reforming Reaction

Surface acidity/basicity of zirconia as gold support is essential to the dispersion and stability of gold catalyst. On suitably modified zirconia, gold exhibits high activity for the steam reforming of methanol at low temperatures with ~100% CO₂ selectivity; this finding is of interest for H₂ production for fuel cell application.