In Situ Investigations on the Facile Synthesis and Catalytic Performance of CeO₂-Pt/Al₂O₃ Catalyst

Ceria-modified Pt/Al2O3 catalyst has been commonly prepared by the impregnation of platinum on ceria-modified alumina and widely applied in the chemical industry and automotive industry. The in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformed spectroscopy (DRIFTS), and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis techniques were employed to investigate the typical mechanisms of the bis(ethanolammonium)hexahydroxyplatinate(IV) and cerium nitrate decomposition catalyzed by Ptδ+ species for the facile synthesis of CeO2-Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. It was found that Pt4+-catalyzed decomposition of cerium nitrate leads to the higher dispersity of ceria and forming more active oxygen species, on the basis of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and H2 temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR) results. The in situ activity measurements were also performed to investigate the reaction mechanisms and the specific activities for the catalytic CO, NO, C3H6 and C3H8 co-oxidation. The results indicate that undesirable N2O by-product is formed by the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO by C3H6 below 350 °C. The cerium addition effectively improves the activity of catalytic oxidation, but exhibits an increased N2O yield, due to the increased reducibility.