Modification of the oxygen storage capacity of CeO 2–ZrO 2 mixed oxides after redox cycling aging

Abstract

High surface area CeO 2–ZrO 2 mixed oxides were treated at 900–950°C either under wet air or under successive reducing and oxidizing atmospheres in order to study the evolution of the oxygen storage capacity (OSC) of these solids after different aging treatments. Several complementary methods were used to characterize the redox behavior: temperature programmed reduction (TPR) by H 2, TPO, magnetic susceptibility measurements to obtain the Ce 3+ content, FT-IR spectroscopy of adsorbed methanol and a method to compare the oxygen buffering capacity (OBC) of the oxides. All the results confirm that the mixed oxides exhibit better redox properties than pure ceria, particularly after aging. The enhancement in the OSC at moderate temperature has to be related to a deeper penetration of the reduction process from the surface into the under-layers. Redox cycling aging promotes the reduction at low temperature of all the mixed oxides, the improvement being much more important for low surface area aged samples. The magnitude of this effect does not depend on the BET surface areas which have similar values after cycling. This underlines the critical influence that the preparation and activation procedure have on the final OSC behaviors of the ceria–zirconia mixed oxides.