Cooperative activation effect on H2O adsorption in MnO-Co catalyzed steam methane reforming

Steam methane reforming is a very important chemical process in hydrogen production and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Cobalt (Co) is an important catalyst for dry and steam methane reforming. However, previous studies have confirmed that metal Co surfaces only have weak adsorption activity for H₂O, which is evidently unfavorable for steam reforming. In this work we used first-principles simulations to study the activity of MnO-Co catalysts for the adsorption of H₂O. Compared with the Co (111) surface and pristine Co clusters, the MnO-Co catalytic layer has a stronger adsorption capability for H₂O because of the introduction of the MnO substrate, which is crucial for improving the steam reforming reaction and inhibiting carbon disposition in SOFCs. The cooperation mechanism between MnO and Co is discussed based on the analysis of electronic structures. The conclusions from this work are universal for other metal-oxide composite catalyst layers.