Preparation and characterization of SnO2 catalysts for CO and CH4 oxidation

SnO2 catalysts were prepared with the precipitation method by varying the pH and SnCl4 concentration. For comparison, another two SnO2 samples were also synthesized with sol-gel and combustion methods. All of the catalysts were characterized by N-2-BET, XRD and H-2-TPR. It was found that the CO oxidation activity of the precipitation samples increases with an increase in pH, while the CH4 oxidation activity seems unchanged. The change of the SnCl4 concentration has little influence on the activity for both CO and CH4 oxidation. The sol-gel sample has relatively higher CO but similar CH4 oxidation activity, due to its higher surface area and finer particle sizes. On the contrary, the combustion sample displays the lowest activity for both reactions, due to its extra low surface area and inert oxygen species.