A comparison of CO oxidation on ceria-supported Pt,Pd, and Rh

Steady-state, CO-oxidation kinetics have been studied at differential conversions on model, ceria-supported, Pt, Pd, and Rh catalysts, from 467 to 573 K, and the results compared to the alumina-supported metals. On each of the ceria-supported metals, there is a second mechanism for CO oxidation under reducing conditions which involves oxygen from ceria reacting with CO on the metals. The rates of this second process are independent of which metal is used. The process has a significantly lower activation energy (14±1 kJ/mol compared to 26±2 kJ/mol on alumina-supported catalysts) and different reaction orders for both CO (zeroth-order compared to –1) and 02 (0.40 to 0.46 compared to first-order). This second process leads to significant rate enhancements over alumina-supported catalysts at low temperatures, especially for Pt. The implications of these results for automotive catalysis are discussed.