Rare earth metal doped CeO2-based catalytic materials for diesel soot oxidation at lower temperatures

In this work, the influence of trivalent rare-earth dopants (Sm and La) on the structure-activity properties of CeO2 was thoroughly studied for diesel soot oxidation. For this, an optimized 40% of Sm and La was incorporated into the CeO2 using a facile co-precipitation method from ultra-high dilute aqueous solutions. A systematic physicochemical characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brumauer-Emmett-teller method (BET) surface area, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman, and H-2-temperature programmed reduction (TPR) techniques. The soot oxidation efficiency of the catalysts was investigated using a thermogravimetric method. The XRD results suggested the formation of nanocrystalline single phase CeO2-Sm2O3 and CeO2-La2O3 solid solutions. The Sm- and La-doped CeO2 materials exhibited smaller crystallite size and higher BET surface area compared with the pure CeO2. Owing to the difference in the oxidation states of the dopants (Sm3+ and La3+) and the Ce4+, a number of oxygen vacancies were generated in CeO2-Sm2O3 and CeO2-La2O3 samples. The H-2-TPR studies evidenced the improved reducible nature of the CeO2-Sm2O3 and CeO2-La2O3 samples compared with the CeO2. It was found that the addition of Sm and La to the CeO2 outstandingly enhanced its catalytic efficiency for the oxidation of diesel soot. The observed 50% soot conversion temperatures for the CeO2-Sm2O3, CeO2-La2O3 and CeO2 were similar to 790, 843 and 864 K (loose contact), respectively, and similar activity order was also found under the tight contact condition. The high soot oxidation efficacy of the CeO2-Sm2O3 sample was attributed to numerous catalytically favourable properties, like smaller crystallite size, larger surface area, abundant oxygen vacancies, and superior reducible nature.