Study of the interactions between carbon monoxide and high specific surface area tin dioxideThermogravimetric analysis and FTIR spectroscopy

The interactions of CO with a high specific surface area tin dioxide was investigated by FTIR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. FTIR study of CO interactions have shown that CO can adsorb on cus (coordinatively unsaturated sites) Sn⁴⁺ cation sites (band at 2201 cm^-1). In addition, CO reacts with surface oxygen atoms. This leads to the partial reduction of SnO₂ surface and to the formation of ionised oxygen vacancies together with the release of free electrons, which are responsible for the loss of transmission. Formed CO₂ can chemisorb on specific surface sites: on basic sites to form carbonates species and on acidic sites (Sn⁴⁺-CO₂ species) which is in competition with the formation of Sn⁴⁺-CO species. TG experiment have shown that the reduction of SnO₂ by CO at 400°C occurs in two steps. First, the reduction of SnO₂ surface, which is a quick phenomenon. This has allowed to evaluate that more than 12% of reducible surface oxygens can react with CO, essentially because of the presence of a large amount of surface hydroxyl groups. The second step of the reduction of SnO₂ would be the progressive reduction of SnO₂ bulk by the slow diffusion of oxygen atoms from the bulk to the surface. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.