Kinetic control of CeO2 nanoparticles for catalytic CO oxidation

This article reports on the growth kinetics of cerium oxide (CeO 2 ) nanoparticles prepared via a sintering method. By varying the sintering temperatures and periods of time, particle size of CeO 2 nanoparticles was tuned from 11 to 100 nm. Ostwald ripening mechanism prevails in the growth process, and the growth kinetics is determined to follow an equation, D 5 = 16.2 5 + 3.6 × 10 20 exp(−344.20/ RT ) in the temperature range of 700 to 1000°C. After dispersing Pt on CeO 2 nanoparticles, the size effect for the catalytic performance of the CO oxidation reaction was researched. When temperature and period of time are set at 700 °C and 2 h, respectively, dispersion of Pt onto CeO 2 nanoparticles led to the largest quantity of chemisorbed oxygen species on the surface and the best catalytic performance. The findings reported here would provide a feasible path for the preparation of advanced catalysts in the future and moreover to discover novel size-dependent supports for many catalytic applications.