Isotopic study of the influence of oxygen interaction and surface species over different catalysts on the soot removal mechanism

Insight into the effect of catalytic reactions on correlations of soot oxidation activity and microspatial structures

A catalyst is usually coated on Diesel particulate filter (DPF) for assisted regeneration. In this paper, the oxidation activity and pore structure evolutions of soot under the effect of CeO₂ are explored. CeO₂ effectively increases the oxidation activity of soot and reduces the initial activation energy; in the meantime, the addition of CeO₂ changes the soot oxidation mode. Pure soot particles tend to produce the porous structure in the oxidation process. Mesopores promote the diffusion of oxygen, and macropores contribute to reduce the agglomeration of soot particles. Additionally, CeO₂ provides the active oxygen for soot oxidation and promotes the multi-point oxidation at the beginning of soot oxidation. With the oxidation proceeding, catalysis causes the collapsion of soot microspatial structures, in the meantime, the macropores caused by the catalytic oxidation are filled by CeO₂. It results in the tight contact between soot and catalyst, further promoting the formation of the available active oxygen for soot oxidation. This paper is meaningful to analyze the oxidation mechanism of soot under catalysis, which lays a foundation for improving the regeneration efficiency of DPF and reducing the particle emission.

Kinetics of Oxygen Exchange and N2O Decomposition Reaction over MeOx/CeO2 (Me = Fe, Co, Ni) Catalysts

MeO_x/CeO₂ (Me = Fe, Co, Ni) samples were tested in an ¹⁸O₂ temperature-programmed isotope exchange and N₂O decomposition (deN₂O). A decrease in the rate of deN₂O in the presence of oxygen evidences the competitive adsorption of N₂O and O₂ on the same sites. A study of isotope oxygen exchange revealed dissociative oxygen adsorption with the subsequent formation of surface oxygen species. The same species, more probably, result from N₂O adsorption and the following N₂ evolution to the gas phase. We supposed the same mechanism of O₂ formation from surface oxygen species in both reactions, including the stages responsible for its mobility. A detailed analysis of the kinetics of isotope exchange has been performed, and the rates of one-atom (R^I) and two-atom (R^II) types of exchange were evaluated. The rate of the stage characterizing the mobility of surface oxygen was calculated, supposing the same two-step mechanism was relevant for both types of exchange. The effect of oxygen mobility on the kinetics of deN₂O was estimated. An analysis of the possible pathways of isotope transfer from MeO_x to CeO_x showed that direct oxygen exchange on the Me-Ce interface makes a valuable contribution to the rate of this reaction. The principal role of the Me-Ce interface in deN₂O was confirmed with independent experiments on FeO_x/CeO₂ samples with a different iron content.