A series of CuO-CeO2 catalysts with Cu content in the range of 5~50 at% (the atomic percent of Cu/(Cu+Ce)) were prepared by co-precipitation method. The catalysts were tested for CO oxidation and selective CO oxidation with CO2, H2O and excess H2. The...
A series of CuO-CeO2 catalysts with Cu content in the range of 5~50 at% (the atomic percent of Cu/(Cu+Ce)) were prepared by co-precipitation method. The catalysts were tested for CO oxidation and selective CO oxidation with CO2, H2O and excess H2. The catalysts were highly active in the CO oxidation and also active and remarkably selective in the selective oxidation. CO2 and H2O, however, decreased the catalyst activity; between CO2 and H2O, H2O decreased the activity more than CO2. Among the catalysts, the 10 at%
Cu catalyst outperformed all the other catalysts in the CO oxidation without CO2 and H2O in the feed, whereas the 20 at% Cu exhibited the highest activity in the selective CO oxidation. This change in the optimum Cu content
could be ascribed to the adverse effect of H2O on the activity that was dependent on the Cu content of the catalysts.
CeO2 supported 3 wt% Cu catalysts were prepared from a chloride containing Cu precursor, a nitrate Cu precursor and a combination of both precursors. The catalysts were tested for the selective CO oxidation in the presence of excess hydrogen to investigate the effect of the chloride content on the catalytic performance. The residual chloride was found to affect the activity in three different ways: (i) it enhanced the dispersion of Cu particles, (ii) it reduced the CO2 inhibition by hindering formation of surface carbonate species, and (iii) it inhibited the catalytic activity by impeding the oxygen mobility on the surface. The increased Cu dispersion was beneficial to the activity and independent of the chloride content from 0.18 ~ 0.76 wt%. With increasing chloride content, however, the CO2 inhibition effect as well as the activity decreased. The decrease in the CO2 inhibition alone would make the catalyst perform better in the presence of CO2, but the decrease in the activity due to the impediment of the oxygen mobility more than offset the beneficial effect of the decreased CO2 inhibition with increasing chloride content. As a result of the combined effects of the chloride, the activity experiments showed that among the tested catalysts, the catalyst containing 0.18 wt% chloride outperformed other catalysts in the selective CO oxidation.