Towards an advanced 3D-printed catalyst for hydrogen peroxide decomposition: Development and characterisation.

The propellant form of hydrogen peroxide is a non-toxic alternative to hydrazine. However, catalysts used to induce hydrogen peroxide decomposition are often plagued by low melting point, high pressure drop and poor activity. 3D-printing may offer solutions to many of these issues, through the realisation of complex geometries such as triply-periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS). In this work, methods to print and coat such ceramic catalyst supports were developed. A flow reactor was used to quickly screen the catalysts and assess the influence of the chosen active phase, precursor, and support sintering temperature on their intrinsic activity. Platinum prepared from H 2 PtCl 6 emerged as the most active catalyst, with a support sintering temperature of 1200 °C yielding the highest BET surface area. The latter was strongly correlated to catalytic activity. On a per weight basis, the printed Pt catalyst outperformed conventional silver screens and also matched the performance of Pt on a high surface area commercial support, due to its egg-shell distribution. These findings have laid the groundwork for future testing in a thruster configuration, where the proposed advantages of the 3D-printed structures will be evaluated. [Display omitted] • Porous ceramic catalyst supports can be generated via FDM and partial sintering. • Wet impregnation of the support results in an egg-shell type catalyst distribution. • Platinum highly effective at decomposing hydrogen peroxide. • Activity of the 3D-printed catalysts exceeds that of traditional silver screens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]