Effect of Cu/CeO2 catalyst preparation methods on their characteristics for low temperature water - gas shift reaction: A detailed study

To investigate the effect of Cu/CeO2 catalysts preparation methods for low temperature water-gas shift reaction, Cu/CeO2 catalysts were prepared with various impregnation sequences and applied to the water-gas shift reaction at a high gas hourly space velocity of 36,080 mL/g.h. The catalyst preparation method affected both the Cu-Ce synergistic effect and the physico-chemical properties of the Ce promoted Cu/CeO2 catalysts, such as specific surface area, Cu particle size, Cu dispersion, amount of active Cu species and oxygen vacancy concentration. Among the prepared catalysts, Cu-Ce/CeO2 showed the highest CO conversion because of the high contents of active Cu species and high concentration of oxygen vacancies.