CO oxidation at 20 °C over Au/SBA-15 catalysts decorated by Fe2O3 nanoparticles

Abstract

Abstract This contribution describes the effect of SBA-15 substrate modification with variable amounts of Fe2O3 (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.%) on the catalytic response of supported gold catalysts in CO oxidation at 20 °C. Catalytic activity was found to increase with the Fe2O3 loading even though this increase was not linear: the highest catalytic activity was observed for the catalyst loaded with 15 wt.% Fe2O3. For the most active Au/S15–15Fe catalyst, this behavior is explained in terms of the largest Fe2O3 cluster dispersion on the surface of the SBA-15 substrate (by XRD), the highest surface exposure of the Au0 species (by XPS) and its large stability during on-stream reaction.