Washcoating vs. direct synthesis of LaCoO sub(3) on monoliths for environmental applications

A "citrate route"-derived procedure to directly synthesize perovskite catalysts on a cordierite monolith has been developed as a simple, sustainable, fast and reproducible alternative to washcoating. The procedure has been validated with LaCoO sub(3), a well-established perovskite active for oxidation reactions. The activity of LaCoO sub(3) directly synthesized on monolith towards CO and C3s oxidation has been compared both with LaCoO sub(3) powders and LaCoO sub(3)/monolith systems obtained by traditional, optimized washcoating procedure. It has been proved that the direct synthesis of the perovskite on the cordierite monolith results in a very uniform, stable catalyst coating, with the same specific activity of powders.