Influence of Nanoscale Surface Arrangements on the Oxygen Transfer Ability of Ceria–Zirconia Mixed Oxide

• Main Authors: Eleonora Aneggi, Carla de Leitenburg, Alessandro Trovarelli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
• Series: Inorganics
• Subjects: ceria–zirconia; redox activity; soot oxidation; ball milling
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6740/8/5/34

Ceria-based materials, and particularly CeO₂–ZrO₂ (CZ) solid solutions are key ingredient in catalyst formulations for several applications due to the ability of ceria to easily cycling its oxidation state between Ce⁴⁺ and Ce³⁺. Ceria-based catalysts have a great soot oxidation potential and the mechanism deeply relies on the degree of contact between CeO₂ and carbon. In this study, carbon soot has been used as solid reductant to better understand the oxygen transfer ability of ceria–zirconia at low temperatures; the effect of different atmosphere and contact conditions has been investigated. The difference in the contact morphology between carbon soot and CZ particles is shown to strongly affect the oxygen transfer ability of ceria; in particular, increasing the carbon–ceria interfacial area, the reactivity of CZ lattice oxygen is significantly improved. In addition, with a higher degree of contact, the soot oxidation is less affected by the presence of NO_x. The NO oxidation over CZ in the presence of soot has also been analyzed. The existence of a core/shell structure strongly enhances reactivity of interfacial oxygen species while affecting negatively NO oxidation characteristics. These findings are significant in the understanding of the redox chemistry of substituted ceria and help determining the role of active species in soot oxidation reaction as a function of the degree of contact between ceria and carbon.