Emission gas purification catalyst and internal combustion engine provided with the catalyst

A catalyst for use in purifying exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine. The active components of an exhaust gas purification catalyst for an internal combustion engine tend to be melted or softened and then to move outside the carrier, because the components become in contact with exhaust gas at a high temperature. Hence, anchoring materials are provided between carriers in order to suppress the moving of catalytically active components. Anchoring materials 22 do not form compounds with catalytically active components 24, and are selected from substances that do not melt even in contact with exhaust gas at a high temperature. When the active components contain sodium, potassium, cesium, lithium, strontium, barium, noble metals and the like, the best anchoring material is MgO. The anchoring material functions as a barrier that prevents the moving of active components.