Preparation, Characterization, and Catalytic Behavior of Nanostructured Mesoporous CuO/ZrO2 Catalysts for Low-Temperature CO Oxidation

High-surface area mesoporous 20 mol% CuO/ZrO2 catalyst was prepared by a surfactant-assisted method of nanocrystalline particle assembly, and characterized by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), H2-TPR, TG-DTA, and x-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) techniques. The catalytic properties of the CuO/ZrO2 nanocatalysts calcined at different temperature were evaluated by low-temperature carbon monoxide oxidation using a CATLAB system. The results showed that these mesoporous nanostructured CuO/ZrO2 catalysts were very active for low-temperature CO oxidation and the CuO/ZrO2 catalyst calcined at 400°C exhibited the highest catalytic activity.