Pt mechanical dispersion on non-porous alumina for soot oxidation

A sustainable mechanical method to disperse Pt particles on the surface of non-porous alpha-Al2O3 microparticles is reported. The hierarchical Pt/alpha-Al2O3 catalyst possesses a metal specific surface area one order of magnitude lower than the state-of-the-art gamma-Al2O3 - supported Pt catalysts of similar metal composition and high alumina specific surface area. The relatively large size of the Pt particles seems to favor the catalytic soot oxidation in spite of their relatively low dispersion. As a result, the temperature of half conversion (T-50 = 440 degrees C) is lower when compared with conventional Pt/gamma-Al2O3 prepared by the wet impregnation chemical synthesis route.