Atmospheric-Pressure DBD Cold Plasma for Preparation of High Active Au/P25 Catalysts for Low-Temperature CO Oxidation

Cold plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure was adopted for preparation of commercial TiO₂ Degussa P25 supported Au catalysts (Au/P25-P) with the assistance of the deposition-precipitation procedure. The influences of the plasma reduction time and calcination on the performance of the Au/P25-P catalysts were investigated. CO oxidation was performed to investigate the catalytic activity of the Au/P25 catalysts. The results show that DBD cold plasma for the fabrication of Au/P25-P catalysts is a fast process, and Au/P25-P (4 min) exhibited the highest CO oxidation activity due to the complete reduction of Au compounds and less consumption of oxygen vacancies. In order to form more oxygen vacancies active species, Au/P25-P was calcined to obtain Au/P25-PC catalysts. Interestingly, Au/P25-PC exhibited the highest activity for CO oxidation among the Au/P25 samples. The results of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicated that the smaller size and high distribution of Au nanoparticles are the mean reasons for a high performance of Au/P25-PC. Atmospheric-pressure DBD cold plasma was proved to be of great efficiency in preparing high performance supported Au catalysts.