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Catalytic activity of Zr/CeO2-Al2O3 catalyst for diesel soot oxidation: synthesis, characterization, and performance evaluation

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Abstract

Diesel soot is a significant contributor to air pollution. Soot particles present in diesel engine exhaust have a negative impact on the environment and human health. Diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) and diesel particulate filters (DPFs) currently use noble metal-based catalysts for soot oxidation. Due to the use of noble metals in the catalyst, the cost of diesel after-treatment systems is steadily rising. As a result, diesel vehicles have become commercially less viable than gasoline vehicles and electronic vehicles. The study focuses on an alternative diesel oxidation catalyst with efficiency similar to that of a noble metal catalyst but with a much lower cost. CeO2-Al2O3 catalysts are known for their oxygen storage capacity and high redox activity, making them suitable for soot oxidation. Adding Zr to these catalysts has been shown to influence their structural and chemical properties, significantly affecting their catalytic behavior. Therefore, the current study is focused on using Zr/CeO2-Al2O3 as a substitute for noble metal-based catalysts to enhance its performance for diesel soot oxidation in automotive exhaust. Evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) was used to prepare 1, 3, and 5 weight (wt) % Zr supported mesoporous CeO2-Al2O3 catalysts. Morphological, structural, and physicochemical properties of the synthesized catalysts were examined using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) absolute isotherm, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Temperature programmed reduction (TPR), and Temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia (NH3-TPD). XRD, BET, and SEM data confirmed that the catalysts were mesoporous and low-crystalline with a high surface area. The soot oxidation activity of the catalysts was evaluated using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) technique. The loose contacts soot oxidation activity test suggested that 50% oxidation of soot occurred at 390 °C in the absence of a catalyst. T50 of CeO2-Al2O3 catalyzed soot oxidation was 296 °C. Adding Zr to the catalyst significantly improved catalytic activity for diesel soot oxidation. We observed a further drastic change in T50 of soot over 1, 3, and 5% Zr/CeO2-Al2O3, which were 220 °C, 210 °C, and 193 °C, respectively. According to these results, incorporating Zr into the CeO2-Al2O3 catalyst significantly improved the oxidation process of soot.

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The data supporting the findings of the study are available within the manuscript. Raw data supporting this study's findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors declare that no external funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript. We thank CSIR-IIP for hel** us complete the research paper to its final stage.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

    Mritunjay Kumar Shukla, Vibhuti Bangwal & Thallada Bhaskar

  2. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Mritunjay Kumar Shukla & Thallada Bhaskar

  3. Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, India

    Atul Dhar

  4. Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO, USA

    Adarsh Kumar

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  1. Mritunjay Kumar Shukla
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Contributions

Dr. Mritunjay Kumar Shukla: The author was responsible for Conceptualization, Methodology, and experimental analysis.

Ms. Vibhuti Bangwal: The author conducted data analysis, draft preparation, writing, and editing.

Dr. Atul Dhar: Experimental analysis and data curation for the experimental results.

Dr. Thallada Bhaskar: Concept and Design of Experiments

Mr. Adarsh Kumar: Synthesizing the catalyst required for the study and editing of the final draft prepared.

Later on, the conclusions were thoroughly discussed among all the authors, and hence, they are mentioned according to the views of all the authors. This is the total contribution and combined effort of all the above-mentioned authors to take this research paper to the final stage.

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Correspondence to Mritunjay Kumar Shukla.

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Shukla, M.K., Bangwal, V., Dhar, A. et al. Catalytic activity of Zr/CeO2-Al2O3 catalyst for diesel soot oxidation: synthesis, characterization, and performance evaluation. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-34052-9

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