Assessment of Manganese Oxide and Cobalt Oxide Catalysts for Three Way Catalytic Converter

Abstract

Raising number of vehicles emits pollutants responsible for one third of total air pollution. Carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons (HC), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) are the main pollutants from petrol engines. It requires stringent vehicular emission norms to be followed for controlling it. Three Way Catalytic Converter (TWCC) contain Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) as catalyst to reduce exhaust emission and is widely used method that fulfills these standards. Because of high cost of PGMs and considerable advancement in metal oxide preparatory methods, metal oxide catalysts have gained more attraction. Manganese oxide (MnOx) and Cobalt Oxide (CoOx) have displayed impressive redox reactions at lower temperature. MnOx seems to be a suitable contender of Oxygen Storage Capacity (OSC) and Cobalt oxide (CoOx) has displayed an excellent catalytic activity for HC and CO oxidation. Hence, these catalysts attract the attention of researchers. Present paper assesses the prospect of MnOx and CoOx as catalysts for the TWCC for redox reactions of CO, HC and NOx and also in terms of OSC and T50 temperature. It is found that CoOx and MnOx both low cost metal oxide catalysts stand a good chance to replace the noble metals for TWCC.