Preparation of ultrafine Ce-based oxide nanoparticles and their catalytic performances for diesel soot combustion

The ultrafine Ce-based oxide nanoparticles with different element dopings (Zr, Y) were synthesized by the method of micropores-diffused coprecipitation (MDC) using ammonia solution as the precipitation agent. The activities of the catalysts for soot oxidation were evaluated by the temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO) reaction. Ce-based oxides prepared in this study exhibited high catalytic activity for soot oxidation under the condition of loose contact between soot particles and catalysts, and the catalytic activity of ultrafine Ce0.9Zr0.1O2 nanoparticle for soot combustion was the highest, whose T10, T50 and SCO2m was 364, 442 °C and 98.3%, respectively. All catalysts were systematically characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Brumauer-Emett-Teller (BET), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis DRS). It was indicated that the MDC method could prepare the ultrafine Ce-based oxide nanoparticles whose the crystal lattice were perfect, and the BET surface area and average crystal size of the ultrafine nanoparticles changed with the different element dopings (Zr, Y). The H2-TPR measurements showed that the ultrafine Ce-based oxide nanoparticles with the doping-Zr cation could be favorable for improving the redox property of the catalysts.