Preparation, characterization and catalytic properties of CuO/CeO2 system

CeO2 nano-particles and CuO/CeO2 system were prepared by sol-gel and impregnation methods and characterized using combined spectroscopic techniques of XRD, XPS, TPR, FT-Raman, BET and HRTEM. It was found the CeO2 was cubic phase with fluorite structure and CuO was highly dispersed on the CeO2 particles. Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) showed a two-step reduction for CuO/CeO2 catalysts. XPS analysis indicated the presence of redox couple Ce4+/Ce3+ and reduced copper species in the CuO/CeO2 catalysts. The factors, such as calcination temperature, calcination time and CuO loading, influenced on the catalytic properties of CuO/CeO2 catalysts.