Total oxidation of CO at ambient temperature using copper manganese oxide catalysts prepared by a redox method

Binary copper manganese oxides were prepared by a novel redox method and their catalytic activity for CO oxidation at ambient temperature evaluated. The catalytic activity was found to be high, and compared favorably with a commercial Hopcalite catalyst. The most active catalyst was able to completely oxidize CO at ambient temperature. Catalytic activity decay, most likely due to carbon dioxide retention was observed. The catalysts were deactivated by moisture but expelling water at moderate temperatures easily restored their catalytic activity. The catalysts were characterized by means of BET, FE-SEM, TEM, EDAX, XPS, TPD and X-ray powder diffraction. The optimum copper loading was determined to be ∼9% of the manganese content. Copper manganese oxide catalysts were synthesized using a simple redox method and found to have exceptionally high catalytic activities for CO oxidation. These catalysts also exhibited enhanced resistance to water poisoning. The most active catalyst with a copper loading of ∼9% was able to completely oxidize CO at ambient temperature after 1h on-stream. The high catalytic activity and enhanced resistance to deactivation by moisture should enable them find applications in respiratory protection systems.