Synthesis and Discovery of More Sustainable Next Generation Automotive Catalysts

The proposed research will develop a new collaboration with a major German automotive catalyst developer and UCL (and Harwell) to obtain new fundamental knowledge of more sustainable high surface area metal oxide nanoceramics (made using scalable continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis methods) for automotive catalyst applications; specifically we will correlate structure-composition-property relationships (for three-way catalyst exhaust materials and separately for NOx absorbers that form part of some engine manifolds). The newly assembled team has all the required expertise in scalable nano-synthesis, characterisation of materials and relevant catalytic testing and in situ evaluation in complex gas mixtures. Specifically, we will develop knowledge on more sustainable PGM replacements (or improve bang for buck), including mixed oxide core-shell materials; initial examples include PGM-Ce-Zr-Al oxide, MnOx or FeOx/CeO2 and Mn, FeOx/Ce(Sm-doped)O2 as well as Ce(Sm)O2 based systems that may give facile NOx oxidation/S tolerance. Thermal and chemical stability via accelerated ageing will also be investigated.