How to Characterize Supported PdOx Catalysts by CO-FTIR Spectroscopy: Importance of Surface Reduction and Particle Size

The palladium oxide phase (PdOx) plays a critical role in catalytic methane oxidation and CO oxidation reactions. Precise characterization of supported PdOx by CO-FTIR spectroscopy is often accompanied by the reduction of PdOx by CO. Lowering the CO partial pressure to 0.05% CO/N2 (0.5 mbar) and the adsorption temperature to −130 °C is a proper condition to inhibit the reduction completely. Then CO-FTIR spectroscopy was conducted on a series of supported PdOx catalysts. We find that CO adsorbed on coordinatively unsaturated Pd atoms (Pdcus) on the PdOx surface gives three adsorption bands at ∼2145 cm–1. Three types of surface Pdcus atoms with different degrees of coordination unsaturation (types I, II, and III) exist in supported PdOx catalysts; their νCO are located at 2133, 2145, and 2160 cm–1, respectively. The order of coordination unsaturation of surface Pdcus should be type III < type II < type I. Since νCO of surface Pdcus is between νCO of Pd2+(CO) and Pd+(CO), the effective charge of surface Pdcus is 1 < n < 2. For small PdOx clusters in zeolite-supported PdOx catalysts, surface Pdcus atoms with more coordination unsaturation (i.e., step, edge, and corner sites) are more abundant, leading to greater IR intensity of adsorbed CO.