Selective oxidation of CO in the presence of hydrogen on CuO/CeO2 catalysts modified with Fe and Ni oxides

The selective oxidation of CO in the presence of hydrogen on CuO/CeO₂ systems containing Fe and Ni oxides as promoters was studied. The catalysts containing 1–5 wt % CuO and 1–2.5 wt % Fe₂O₃ supported on CeO₂ and the CuO/CeO₂ systems containing 1–2.5 wt % NiO were synthesized, and their catalytic activity as a function of temperature was determined. It was found that the additives of Fe and Ni oxides increased the activity of the CuO/CeO₂ catalysts with a low concentration of CuO. In this case, the conversion of CO at 150°C approached 100%. At the same time, these additives had no effect on the activity of the CuO/CeO₂ systems at a CuO concentration of 5 wt % or higher, which exhibited an initially high activity in the above temperature region. The forms of CO adsorption and the amounts of active sites for CO adsorption and oxidation were studied using temperature-programmed desorption. It was found that the introduction of Fe and Ni additives in a certain preparation procedure facilitated the formation of an additional amount of active centers associated with CuO. Data on the temperature-programmed reduction of samples (the amount of absorbed hydrogen and the maximum temperature of hydrogen absorption) suggested the interaction of all catalyst components, and the magnitude of this interaction depended on the sample preparation procedure. With the use of Mössbauer spectroscopy, it was found that the procedure of iron oxide introduction into the CuO/CeO₂ system was responsible for the electron-ion interactions of catalyst components and the reaction mixture.