CuO–CeO2 catalysts synthesized by various methods: Comparative study of redox properties

Three different preparation methods have been used to synthesize CuO–CeO2 catalysts with 7 wt.% copper loading: coprecipitation (CP), sol–gel (SG) and urea–nitrate combustion (UC). All the samples have been characterized by a series of techniques such as XRD, Raman, TPR, TPD and OSC, in order to understand their different performance in CO oxidation, as a function of redox properties and catalyst structure. Among the catalysts, clearly CuCe-CP shows the lower activity because it presents the structure of a solid solution. CuCe-SG and CuCe-UC catalysts show much better performance in CO oxidation, in accordance to their higher redox capacity.