Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 Powder.pdf

Effect of Ba21 Addition on Phase Separation and Oxygen Storage Capacity of Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 Powder Chia-Che Chuang, Ming-Jay Chen, Hsing-I Hsiang,w and Fu-Su Yen Particulate Materials Research Center, Department of Resources Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan Chih-Cheng Chen Department of Mechanical Engineering, Far East University, Tainan 744, Taiwan Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 (CZ) plays an important role in three-way catalyst for its outstanding oxygen storage capacity (OSC). However, CZ decomposes into Ce- and Zr-rich phases after high-temper- ature calcinations, which results in the degradation of OSC. In this study, CZ was synthesized using a coprecipitation method. Subsequently, different amounts of Ba21 ions were introduced into the CZ using an incipient wetness impregnation method followed by calcination at 10001C for 2 h to obtain a series of so- called BCZa powders. The Ba21 ion addition effects on the phase development, specific surface area, crystallite size, ag- glomeration, and OSC of CZ were investigated. The addition of 0.5–3 wt% Ba21 ions significantly increased the specific surface area and inhibited CZ phase separation. However, with the ad- dition of Ba21 ions at or above 10 wt%, severe agglomeration occurred and Ba(CexZr1x)O3 (0oxo1) was detected, both of which contributed to lowering the OSC of BCZa. With the ad- dition of 5 wt% Ba21 ions, the BCZa exhibited the maximum OSC (91.4 lmol/g), due to the high abundance of active oxygen species on the interface between Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 and BaZrO3. I. Introduction CeO2 is an essential component of exhaust-gas treatment sys- tems in automobiles.1,2 In current three-way catalyst (TWC) automotive pollution control devices, the reducing and oxidizing (redox) properties of CeO2 allow the catalyst to enlarge the op- erating air/fuel ratio window.3,4 In a reducing atmosphere, CeO2 releases oxygen to form CeO2x (where 0.5  x40). However, in an oxidizing atmosphere, CeO2x easily absorbs oxygen to