Fabrication and Testing of Low-Temperature Catalytically Active Washcoat Materials for Next-Generation Vehicle Catalytic Converters. Final Report for YSU Center of Transportation and Materials Engineering (YSU CTME).

摘要

With funds from this grant, Youngstown State University has purchased a Quantachrome iQ Chemisorption Analyzer and built a Chemical Reactor with Gas Chromatographer for catalyst characterization. PI has been involved in the purchase and installation of the instruments. The two new instruments were fully operational in the spring of 2013 and have so far been used for student research. For the research projects, we found that the nucleation and oxidation of Ce(OH)3 are critical steps which needs careful control in order to synthesize different morphological CeO2 nanocrystals. The combination of stirring and oxidation of suspension could destroy the nucleation and growth of Ce(OH)3, resulting in the formation of irregular CeO2 nanocrystals during the hydrothermal reactions. We demonstrated a general route for shape-controlled synthesis of CeO2 nanocrystals via mediation of the Ce(OH)3 seed before hydrothermal reactions. It was revealed that the shape of CeO2 support plays a critical role in metal-CeO2 catalytic activity for low-temperature CO oxidation. Out of this project, six refereed and four proceeding papers were published, along with several oral presentations made by PI and students.