Synthesis of copper-decorated CeO2 catalysts

JOBBAGY, MATÍAS; MARIÑO, FERNANDO; SCHÖNBROD, BETINA; BARONETTI, GRACIELA; LABORDE, MIGUEL

CHEMISTRY OF MATERIALS

Año: 2006 vol. 18 p. 1945 - 1950

0897-4756

The urea method is explored for a high yield preparation of CuO-CeO2 catalysts precursors. Solutions containing urea, Ce(NO3)3 and Cu(NO3)2 were aged at 363 K for 5 h, achieving a quantitative coprecipitation in the form of amorphous Cu(II)-Ce(III) basic carbonates, with Cu(II) contents up to 40%. The mixed precursors were characterized by PXRD, SEM, EDS, FTIR and TG. Upon mild thermal treatment under air atmosphere, i.e., T = 723 K powders were readily converted into CuO-decorated nanometric ceria. No Tenorite (CuO) segregation is observed after annealing at 873 K. The binary oxides were characterized by means of temperature programmed reduction (TPR) and a test reaction for the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO-PROX), achieving the best performance with samples containing around 20 % in copper atoms.