Complimentary Neutron & X-ray Total Scattering Study of Doped Ceria-Zirconia Nanocatalyst Material

In 2020, strict legislations will be introduced, further restricting the CO, NOx, and hydrocarbon gas emission for motorcycles (MCs). In this industrial postdoc project, Three-Way-Catalyst nanomaterials are developed and studied in close collaboration with the Danish industry for use in MC exhaust systems. The catalyst material is made up of Lanthanide (Ln3+) doped ceria-zirconia nanoparticles coated with Pd or Rh. For this beam time proposal, we are interested in knowing how the Ln dopants, which increase the material’s oxygen storage capacity as well as thermal stability, are incorporated into the structure. By utilizing the complementarity of neutron and x-ray scattering, the local geometry around the Ln dopants can be determined and related to the material properties, resulting in the development of novel nanocatalyst materials that comply with the strict 2020 legislations.