Oxidation of carbon monoxide catalyzed by copper-zirconium composite oxides Original Research Article

CO oxidation was measured at atmospheric pressure over copper oxide catalysts supported on γ-Al2O3, 3% ZrO2+γ-Al2O3, ZrO2 (UFP) and ZrO2, and their catalytic action was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Copper oxide supported on all these catalysts existed as an excellent dispersed state; at the moment, the catalytic activity was the highest. Copper in small amounts had a strong tendency to associate with zirconium oxide and caused a large increase in activity. When the zirconium oxide surface was saturated with copper, excess copper formed bulk copper oxide particles contributing little to the catalytic activity. In the TPR experiments, three TPR peaks over CuOZrO2 (UFP) and CuOZrO2 were observed at 170–210°C (peak α and β) and above 210°C (peak β). In conjunction with the observations by XRD, it was concluded that highly dispersed copper(II) oxide and bulky copper(II) oxide were reduced to metallic copper, giving peaks α, β and γ, respectively. The TPD analyses showed CuOZrO2 catalysts exhibited a TPD peak of surfaceʹs adsorbed oxygen below 350°C. Thus, not only the presence of surfaceʹs adsorbed oxygen but also the desorptibility of α oxygen species from copper oxide located on ZrO2, which increased with CuO content, may also be related to the catalytic activity.