Nanostructured Materials Prepared by Surface-Assisted Reduction: New Catalysts for Methane Oxidation

Cerium formate hollow spheres and cerium hydroxycarbonate nanorods with residual formate groups are effective for reducing palladium­(II) salts onto their surfaces. Calcination of the new materials obtained by this surface-assisted reduction method gives highly active PdO/CeO2 nanostructures with Pd well dispersed on the substrate. Temperature-programmed oxidation experiments showed that these nanomaterials are good catalysts for the low-temperature oxidation of methane, with 50% conversion temperatures (T 50%) at ∼300 °C.