Comparative Study of Various Preparation Methods of CuO–CeO2 Catalysts for Oxidation of n–Hexane and iso–Octane

The complete oxidation of n-Hexane and iso-Octane was studied individually in a fixed bed tubular flow reactor over CuO-CeO2 catalysts synthesized via four different methods namely urea-nitrate combustion method, urea gelation/co-precipitation method, citric acid sol-gel method and co-impregnation method. Laser diffraction was employed in catalysts characterization. The results obtained from the complete conversion of n-Hexane and iso-Octane revealed that the CuO-CeO2 catalysts prepared by urea-nitrate combustion method (UNC) showed the best performance than the catalysts prepared by other methods used in the present investigation. CuO-CeO2 catalysts prepared by UNC method achieve total n-Hexane and iso-Octane conversion to CO2 at lower temperatures of 280 °C and 340 °C respectively due to the larger surface area of the catalysts which increases the specific rate of reaction.