Synthesis of silica supported AuCu nanoparticle catalysts and the effects of pretreatment conditions for the CO oxidation reaction

Supported gold nanoparticles have generated an immense interest in the field of catalysis due to their extremely high reactivity and selectivity. Recently, alloy nanoparticles of gold have received a lot of attention due to their enhanced catalytic properties. Here we report the synthesis of silica supported AuCu nanoparticles through the conversion of supported Au nanoparticles in a solution of Cu(C(2)H(3)O(2))(2) at 300 °C. The AuCu alloy structure was confirmed through powder XRD (which indicated a weakly ordered alloy phase), XANES, and EXAFS. It was also shown that heating the AuCu/SiO(2) in an O(2) atmosphere segregated the catalyst into a Au-CuO(x) heterostructure between 150 °C to 240 °C. Heating the catalyst in H(2) at 300 °C reduced the CuO(x) back to Cu(0) to reform the AuCu alloy phase. It was found that the AuCu/SiO(2) catalysts were inactive for CO oxidation. However, various pretreatment conditions were required to form a highly active and stable Au-CuO(x)/SiO(2) catalyst to achieve 100% CO conversion below room-temperature. This is explained by the in situ FTIR result, which shows that CO molecules can be chemisorbed and activated only on the Au-CuO(x)/SiO(2) catalyst but not on the AuCu/SiO(2) catalyst.