Role of the supports during phosphorus poisoning of diesel oxidation catalysts

Phosphorus (P) poisoning is one of the main factors accounting for the deactivation of diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC) apart from sulfur poisoning and sintering of the Pt active sites. This study compares the impact of P with loading up to 2.4 wt% on the catalytic performance of mono and bimetallic Pt-Pd catalysts using alumina and high silica BEA zeolites as the supports. P poisoning caused deactivation for CO, C3H6, C3H8 and NO oxidation; however, the degree of the impact of P in terms of temperatures at which 50% of the component is converted (T50) depends not only on the types of the active phase (Pt and Pt-Pd) but also on the types of supports (alumina and BEA zeolite). The influence of P impregnation on the textural properties of the materials is more significant for zeolite than alumina-based catalysts, which is in line with the activity measurements. A weak interaction between P and high silica zeolite results in the formation of a prominent fraction of P2O5 in the P-Pt/BEA, whereas a strong binding between P and alumina accounted for a higher fraction of phosphite/phosphate than P2O5 in the P-Pt/Al2O3 as revealed by XPS and NMR measurements. Phosphorus compounds partially covered the available surface of the active sites and this lowered the catalytic activity. For alumina-based catalysts, P mainly reacted with the support and only deactivated a part of the active noble metals. Whereas, for zeolite-based catalysts, P existed mainly in the form of phosphorus oxides that significantly blocked the catalyst surface and thereby deactivated more of the available active sites than that on alumina-based materials, which is also observed in the CO chemisorption data.