Carbon Monoxide Combustion on Metal Oxide Supported Au@CuxO Catalysts at Low Temperature

Au@CuxO core-shell structure nanoparticles (NPs) have been designed and used for CO catalytic combustion to improve Au catalysts' activity and stability and decrease the cost. The catalytic performance of Au@CuxO/Metal Oxide has been affected a lot by the Au NPs' nature, the core-shell structural perfection, the shell thickness and the support type. It proved that Au particles prepared with neutral aqueous solution (pH = 7) is more feasible to be used as the active component of combustion catalysts. The suitable amount of Cu(NO3)(2) used for Au@CuxO preparation has led to the formation of more core-shell structure NPs with thin shell thickness thus lead to high activity. Among all the oxides studied here, Co3O4 is the best catalyst support. Both the catalytic activity and stability of Au@CuxO/Co3O4 are high. The Au content in the catalysts is only 0.11 wt% and the 90% CO conversion temperature is 132 degrees C. CO can even combust on Au@CuxO/Co3O4 at room temperature with 51% conversion and without any loss after 72-h reaction.