Preferential oxidation of CO in excess hydrogen over a nanostructured CuO–CeO2 catalyst with high surface areas

CuO–CeO2 is prepared by coprecipitation and ethanol washing and characterized using BET, HR-TEM, XRD and TPR techniques. The results show that CuO–CeO2 is nanosized (rTEM = 6.5 nm) and possesses high surface area (SBET = 138 m2 g−1). Furthermore, some lattice defects in the surface of CuO–CeO2 are found, which are beneficial to enhance catalytic performance of CuO–CeO2 in preferential oxidation of CO in excess hydrogen (PROX). Consequently, the nanostructured CuO–CeO2 exhibits perfect catalytic performance in PROX. Namely, CO content can be lowered to less than 100 ppm at 150 °C with 100% selectivity of O2 in the presence of 8% CO2 and 20% H2O at 120,000mlgcat-1h-1.