Studies on combustion catalytic activity of some pure and doped lanthanum cobaltites

The aim of this work is to compare the catalytic activity of some pure and doped lanthanum cobaltites, prepared by solution combustion technique, with a Pt/Al2O3 commercial catalyst. As test reaction we used the combustion of lean methane mixtures. The experimental data evidenced a significantly better catalytic activity of a cerium-doped lanthanum cobaltite, prepared by using α-alanine as fuel. The combustion data, for the lean methane mixtures we tested, are well fitted by a first-order kinetic expression. The calculated activation energy values are in good agreement with the published data.