Study of CO oxidation activity of NiO-PDC and NiO-YSZ catalysts coated on alumina wash-coated honeycomb cordierite monolith

In this study, the EDTA-Citrate method was employed to synthesize NiO-PDC (NPC) and NiO-YSZ (NYZ) powder catalysts in nanostructured form. Subsequently, the catalysts were slurry dip-coated onto monolith cordierite substrates with alumina, using a one-step coating approach, and their CO oxidation activity was tested. The coating was achieved by first mixing the catalyst with the alumina suspension to prepare a homogeneous slurry, which was then used for dip coating onto the monolith. The adherence test was performed on the coated monolith to evaluate the mechanical stability of the catalyst-alumina composite layer. The coating was visually confirmed through optical imaging. The remaining powders (after coating) were then subjected to BET surface area, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, H2 TPR and O2 TPD analysis for characterization. Raman spectra showed that NPC exhibited higher oxygen vacancies than NYZ. H2 TPR and O2 TPD provided better evidence of the reduction potential and O2 desorption of NPC respectively. NPC/cord demonstrated the highest catalytic activity (T50 = 165 °C) compared to NYZ/cord (T50 = 215 °C) and bare cordierite (T50 = 777 °C), which is attributed to its better redox properties and higher oxygen vacancies. The effect of flow rate and heating rate on CO oxidation was studied on NPC/cord and NYZ/cord. The long-term stability of the NPC/cord and NYZ/cord were tested through 5-h and 50-h isothermal studies.