Abstract
In this work, Au and Pd nanoparticles supported on pure CeO2 and CeO2-HfO2 mixed oxides have been prepared using microwave irradiation. The structural, surface and bulk properties have been investigated using XRD, BET, UV-Vis, Raman spectra, TPR and TEM images. XRD and Raman spectra results confirm the formation of CeO2-HfO2 solid solutions with high degree of dispersion of Au and Pd nanoparticles. TEM images show that Au and Pd particles are nanosized with almost uniform shape. A TPR study shows that the presence of Au effectively enhances the reduction of pure supports to lower temperatures. The catalytic activity results show enhancement of the catalytic activities of the supports after loading with Au and Pd nanoparticles. Moreover, the samples that contain Au nanoparticles exhibit higher catalytic activities, which increases with the extent of Au loading.