Light-off performance over cobalt oxide- and ceria-promoted platinum and palladium catalysts

Monolith catalysts containing Co, Ce, Pt and Pd supported on alumina were prepared and tested with respect to low-temperature activity for oxidation of CO and propene. The catalysts were either pre-oxidised or pre-reduced prior to evaluation with respect to light-off performance, using net oxidising and net reducing CO/C3H6/O-2/N-2 gas mixtures. Promotion of Pt and Pd with cobalt or cerium oxide, favoured the low temperature activity significantly. Pre-reduction of Co- and Ce-promoted noble metals shifted the conversion starts of CO and propene toward lower temperatures compared with pre-oxidised samples. Pre-reduction of cobalt oxide, without Pt or Pd, yielded a dramatic improvement of the low-temperature catalytic performance compared with pre-oxidation of the said oxide. The catalysts were characterised by temperature programmed desorption of CO and specific surface area measurements. The high activity over the pre-reduced cobalt containing catalysts is suggested to be due to the presence of reduced cobalt oxide sites on those samples.