Boosting of Soot Combustion on Alkaline Mn/ZrO2 Nanostructures

Abstract

An important decrease in the soot combustion temperature was observed by employing potassium and manganese on ZrO2 as support; significantly boosted soot combustion was obtained with the K/ZrO2 and Mn–K/ZrO2 catalysts for T50 at 295 and 240 °C, respectively. The enhanced catalytic activity by using the Mn–K/ZrO2 catalyst could be attributed to the alkaline metal ion, which improved the catalyst/soot contact. XPS results revealed the presence of surface vacancies, where the addition of manganese improved the lattice oxygen and concentration of OH groups on the Mn–K/ZrO2 catalyst at low temperatures; the presence of surface vacancies was facilitated by the interaction between potassium and manganese. The Mn–K/ZrO2 catalyst showed resistance to deactivation for five cycles.