Performance of CO Oxidation over Highly Dispersed Gold Catalyst on TiOx/SiO2 Composite Supports

Supports have a significant effect on the dispersion and stability of Au. nanoparticles because of the support-metal interaction. In the present work, TiOx/SiO2 composite supports were prepared by the surface sol-gel (SSG) method to enhance the binding strength between the metal and the support. The samples were characterized by low-energy ion scattering (LEIS) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and N-2 physisorption (BET). The results showed that the TiOx species in TiOx/SiO2 were highly dispersed on SiO2 with the formation of Ti-O-Si linkages. The catalytic activity and stability for CO oxidation on Au/TiOx/SiO2 were significantly enhanced, because of the better dispersion of Au nanoparticles compared with Au/TiO2.