CO oxidation at 20 °C over Au/SBA-15 catalysts decorated by Fe2O3 nanoparticles

This contribution describes the effect of SBA-15 substrate modification with variable amounts of Fe2O3 (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.%) on the catalytic response of supported gold catalysts in CO oxidation at 20 degrees C. Catalytic activity was found to increase with the Fe2O3 loading even though this increase was not linear: the highest catalytic activity was observed for the catalyst loaded with 15 wt.% Fe2O3. For the most active Au/S15-15Fe catalyst, this behavior is explained in terms of the largest Fe2O3 cluster dispersion on the surface of the SBA-15 substrate (by XRD), the highest surface exposure of the Au-0 species (by XPS) and its large stability during on-stream reaction. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.