Ionic Conducting Ceramics for Soot Oxidation. Mechanistic Study with 18O2 Isotopic Exchange

L. LIZARRAGA; E. OBEID; A. BOREAVE; M.C. STEIL; P. VERNOUX

Seattle

Encuentro; 221th Electrochemical Society Meeting; 2012

Electrochemical Society

Soot formed by incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, mainly from Diesel engines, affect radiative forcing, with an overall contribution to global warming estimated to be second after that due to CO2 emissions[1]. It also presents a significant health risk due to the content of bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on soot surface [2]. Since 2011, the EURO 5 emission European standards for passenger cars restrict the particulate emissions of Diesel and gasoline vehicles to 0.005 g/km. As a consequence, the development of new economical soot combustion catalysts free of noble metals is an urgent challenge with high interest for the automotive after-treatment research. This work presents results of catalytic performances of Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 (YSZ), an O2- ionically conducting ceramic, for the soot combustion reaction. Soot oxidation experiments were carried out in 18O2 with the aim of investigating the mechanism of soot catalytic oxidation by YSZ. In addition, porous YSZ pellets were developed to simulate a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) and tested in quasi real conditions.