Effect of interaction between CuO and CeO 2 on the performance of CuO-CeO 2 catalysts for selective oxidation of CO in H 2 -rich streams

A series of CuO–CeO2 catalysts have been prepared by different methods and the effects of interaction between CuO and CeO2 on the performance of CuO-CeO2 catalysts for selective oxidation of CO in H2-rich streams have been investigated. The results show that HY-CuO-CeO2 with strong interaction and synergistic effect between interfacial CuO and CeO2 exhibits superior catalytic activity, especially at low temperatures. For HY-CuO-CeO2, the temperature of 50 % CO conversion is only 75 °C and the temperature window of CO conversions up to 99.0 % is about 30 C wide, from 120–140 °C. The strong interaction between copper and cerium oxide promotes the reduction of highly dispersed CuO species, the formation and stability of abundant Cu species and the production of abundant oxygen vacancies and lattice oxygen of copper oxide.