Preferential oxidation of CO in excess hydrogen over a nanostructured CuO-CeO2 catalyst with high surface areas

CuO-CeO2 is prepared by coprecipitation and ethanol washing and characterized using BET, HR-TEM, XRD and TPR techniques. The results show that CuO-CeO2 is nanosized (r(TEM) = 6.5 nm) and possesses high surface area (S-BET = 138 m(2) g(-1)). Furthermore, some lattice defects in the surface of CuO-CeO2 are found, which are beneficial to enhance catalytic performance of CuO-CeO2 in preferential oxidation of CO in excess hydrogen (PROX). Consequently, the nanostructured CuC-CeO2 exhibits perfect catalytic performance in PROX Namely, CO content can be lowered to less than 100 ppm at 150 degrees C with 100% selectivity of O-2 in the presence of 8% CO2 and 20% H2O at 120, 000 ml g(-1) h(-1). Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.