CeO2 nanoparticles modified by CuO nanoparticles for low-temperature CO oxidation with high catalytic activity

CeO2 nanocomposites modified by CuO are successfully synthesized by a facile hydrothermal method. The influence of different Cu contents on the crystal structure, morphology, surface element valence, specific surface area, and material reduction temperature has been characterized by many different technical characterization means of XRD, SEM, TEM, Raman, XPS, specific surface area measurement and temperature programmed control under hydrogen, respectively. With the increasing of Cu metal content, the grain size tends to decrease and specific surface area of the sample tends to increase. The CO catalytic oxidation performance of CuO–CeO2 nanocomposites is studied by gas chromatography. Compared with pure CeO2, the CuO–CeO2 nanocomposite catalysts showed more active catalytic performance. The temperature with catalyst rate of 50% in all CuO–CeO2 nanocomposite catalysts for CO conversion is relatively low (77 < T50 < 172 °C). In all as-prepared nanocatalysts, the CuO–CeO2 nanocomposite catalyst with 30 wt% Cu plays the best catalytic activity and the temperature of 50% CO conversion could be down to 77 °C. The introduction of transition metal element Cu could facilitate the interaction of the material surface, promoting the generation of oxygen vacancy, so as to improve the conversion efficiency of CuO modified CeO2 nanocomposite for CO catalytic oxidation at low temperature.