Stabilizing Pd-cerium oxide-aluminum oxide catalysts for methane oxidation by reduction pretreatments

Pd-CeO₂ based catalysts are state-of-the-art for methane oxidation, but deactivate due to Pd nanoparticle growth at high temperature. While encapsulation by CeO₂ shells was reported to increase the stability of Pd nanoparticles (NPs), the established synthesis methods are not easily scalable. Here, we report the synthesis of PdO/CeO_x/Al₂O₃ and CeO_x/PdO/Al₂O₃ catalysts with improved stability for methane oxidation by sequential impregnation of Pd and Ce precursors on an Al₂O₃ support followed by reduction. The reduced catalysts displayed higher methane oxidation activity, and a lowering of the light-off temperature compared to the fresh calcined catalysts. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) chemical imaging of the reduced catalysts indicated a redispersion of cerium oxide on the support surface and anchoring of Pd nanoparticles by cerium oxide. After aging at high temperature (850 °C), the activity of the reduced CeO_x/PdO/Al₂O₃ catalysts remained high, while the activity of the calcined catalysts dropped significantly. The results showed that simple reduction pretreatments could improve the catalytic activity and stability of the catalysts at both low and high reaction temperatures through changing Pd-Ce interactions, restructuring of the surface and changes in the nature and types of adsorbed species, as shown by HRTEM, EDS and operando diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy. We believe that the proposed strategy can be used as a scalable alternative to embedding of Pd NPs by CeO₂ in core-shell systems for enhanced thermal stability in exhaust after treatment applications.