A novel Ce 0.485 Zr 0.485 Y 0.03 O 2 composite oxide with surface doping of Y and its application in Pd‐only three‐way catalyst

Abstract The ceria‐zirconia compound oxide‐supported noble metal Pd (Pd@CZ) is widely used in three‐way catalyst. Moreover, the surface structure of CZ plays an important role in catalytic activity of Pd. However, how to regulate the surface structure of CZ and clarify the structure–activity relationship is still a challenge. In this paper, a strategy is proposed to develop high activity Pd@CZ nanocatalysts by tuning Y doping sites in CZ. The precipitate‐deposition method is developed to prepare the novel Ce 0.485 Z r0.485 Y 0.03 O 2 composite with surface doping of Y (CZ‐Y‐S). In addition, the Pd@CZ‐Y‐S (Pd supported on CZ‐Y‐S) exhibits superior catalytic activity for HC, CO, and NO oxide, wherein, for CO and C 3 H 6 oxidation, the low‐temperature activity of Pd@CZ‐Y‐S is still 20% higher than that of Pd@CZ‐Y‐B (Y bulk doping) and commercial Pd@CZ after 1000 °C/4 h aging. The effect mechanism is further studied by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Compared with Pd@CZ‐Y‐B, Pd@CZ‐Y‐S shows the lower CO oxide reaction energy barriers due to the weaker adsorption strength of O 2 . The Y surface doping strategy could provide valuable insights for the development of highly efficient Pd@CZ catalyst with extensive applications.