Robust Joule-heating ceramic reactors for catalytic CO oxidation

Joule-heating reactors have the higher energy efficiency and product selectivity compared with the reactors based on radiative heating. Current Joule-heating reactors are constructed with electrically-conductive metals or carbon materials, and therefore suffer from stability issue due to the presence of corrosive or oxidizing gases during high-temperature reactions. In this study, chemically-stable and electrically-conductive (La_0.80Sr_0.20)_0.95FeO₃ (LSF)/Gd_0.1Ce_0.9O₂ (GDC) ceramics have been used to construct Joule-heating reactors for the first time. Taking the advantage of the resistance decrease of the ceramic reactors with temperature increase, the ceramic reactors heated under current control mode achieved the automatic adjustment of heating to stabilize reactor temperatures. In addition, the electrical resistance of LSF/GDC reactors can be tuned by the content of the high-conductive LSF in composite ceramics and ceramic density via sintering temperature, which offers flexibility to control reactor temperatures. The ceramic reactors with dendritic channels (less than 100 µm in diameter) showed the catalytic activity for CO oxidation, which was further improved by coating efficient MnO₂ nanocatalyst on reactor channel wall. The Joule-heating ceramic reactors achieved complete CO oxidation at a low temperature of 165 ℃. Therefore, robust ceramic reactors have successfully demonstrated effective Joule heating for CO oxidation, which are potentially applied in other high-temperature catalytic reactions.