Chaos is Cheap: Aerosol routes to catalyst synthesis
Sheryl Ehrman
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
sehrman@umd.edu
Ceria, either in the pure form or doped with other metals (Mg2+, Cu2+, La2+,
Sc2+, Gd3+, Y3+, Zr4+ etc.), potentially has a wide range of applications including
gas sensors, abrasives, electrode materials for solid oxide fuel cells, oxygen
pumps, amperometric oxygen monitors, and three way catalytic supports for
automobile exhaust gas treatment.
The unique redox features of ceria, in
particular the ability to shift between CeO2 and CeO2-x under reaction conditions,
contribute to its success in catalytic applications. In the case of ceria-based
multicomponent materials, the chemical nature and location of the additional
active species play a large role in functionality and process parameters during
synthesis can be used to improve material characteristics and performance. Our
group has recently developed an aerosol flame spray pyrolysis process for the
preparation of ceria, doped with a variety of materials, for applications including
water-gas shift reaction catalysis and desulfurization. In this presentation, an
overview of aerosol processing for materials synthesis will be given together with
results for synthesis, characterization and performance testing of ceria based
water gas shift catalysts.