Catalysis Letters, Vol.119, No.1-2, 172-178, 2007
Synthesis of Pd-alumina and Pd-lanthana suspension for catalytic applications by one-step liquid flame spray
Catalytic materials of alumina and lanthana supported nanosized palladium particles (7 wt%) in a water suspension were prepared by Liquid Flame Spray (LFS) method. The particle production rate was 90 g/h, using liquid precursors containing Al(NO3)(3) center dot 9H(2)O, La(NO3)(3) center dot 6H(2)O and Pd(NH3)(4)NO3 in water solution. In the LFS method, a turbulent, high-temperature (T-max similar to 2,700 degrees C) H-2-O-2 flame is used. The liquid precursor is atomized into micron sized droplets by high velocity H-2 flow and introduced into the flame where the droplets will evaporate. The evaporated compounds decompose and the reaction product re-condenses into particulate material. Here, the nanosized particles are formed by gas-to-particle conversion and the micron sized particles via liquid-to-solid route. In this study, the produced particulate material was collected by thermophoresis along with condensing water into a suspension (nanoparticles in water) in a one-step process. Thus, the whole suspension was produced from the end products of the flame. According to TEM-EDS analysis, the particulate material contained micron sized porous aluminum oxide or lanthanum oxide carrier particles, coated by nanosized palladium particles (similar to 2-10 nm). The surfactant (Rhodasurf-La 42) was injected into the suspension just after collection to reduce agglomeration. Catalytic performance of the produced Pd-lanthana containing suspension was tested in laboratory with synthetic gases, in order to use it as a possible raw material for three-way catalyst (TWC). The suspension was used as Pd raw material in TWC washcoat and dispersed onto a metallic honeycomb.