Diesel soot combustion ceria catalysts

This review article summarizes the contents of the keynote lecture with the same tittle presented at the 7 th edition of the International Conference on Environmental Catalysis hold in Lyon (France) in September 2012. Different aspects of the ceria-catalyzed Diesel soot combustion reactions have been critically discussed, such as the high catalytic activity of ceria for Diesel soot combustion in comparison to some other potential catalysts, the potential ceria-catalyzed Diesel soot combustion mechanisms (the so-called NO2-assisted mechanism and the active oxygen mechanism) and the effect of ceria doping with suitable cations like those of Pr, La or Zr. Ceria must be doped in order to enhance thermal stability, but ceria doping also changes different physicochemical and catalytic properties of ceria. Zr-doping, for instance, has a double role on ceria as soot combustion catalyst: enhances ceria oxidation capacity of the adsorbed NOx species (positive effect) but stabilizes NO2 on surface (negative effect). The surface properties of a ceria catalyst are usually more important than those of bulk: high surface area/small crystal size usually has a positive effect on the catalyst performance and, in mixed oxides, the surface composition also plays a role. The optimal dopant loading depends on the foreign cation being, for instance, around 510%, 20-30% and 50 mole % for La 3+ , Zr 4+ , and Pr 3+ / 4+ , respectively.