Catalytic Oxidation of Propane and Carbon Monoxide by Pd Nanoparticles on Mn/TiO2 Catalysts

Abstract The present work shows experimental results on the catalytic oxidation of C 3 H 8 and CO by Pd nanoparticles supported on MnO x /TiO 2 synthesized by the sol–gel method. The results show a strong interaction between Pd and MnO x /TiO 2 ; likewise, the annealing temperature of the TiO 2 support modified the catalytic properties of the Pd–MnO x /TiO 2 catalyst. In this line, the catalysts with 1 and 2 wt% of Pd loading supported on MnO x /TiO 2 showed outstanding catalytic activity oxidizing C 3 H 8 and CO within two temperature intervals: 200–400 °C and 25–200 °C, respectively. The Pd–MnO x /TiO 2 catalyst also displayed very high stability during long-term tests and the addition of Pd nanoparticles reduced greatly the oxidation temperature of MnO x /TiO 2 . The outcomes revealed that the Pd–Mn interaction promoted the formation of new Pd 0 /Pd 2+ active sites as well as the formation of oxygen vacancies and reduced Ti 4+ to Ti 3+ species, which led to the improvement of the Mn 3+ and Mn 4+ redox features, thus boosting the catalytic oxidation capacity of the Pd–MnO x /TiO 2 catalyst. Graphical Abstract