ATOMIC INVESTIGATION OF THERMAL STABILITY OF NANOSIZED CERIA PARTICLES ON METAL OXIDE SURFACES

W Jiang and M Wong and AR Rammohan and Y Jiang and JL Williams, ADVANCES IN SINTERING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 209, 401-414 (2010).

A large surface area enhances the chemical and physical performance of nanosized materials. However, this enhancement could come at the cost of lowered thermal stability (a shortened life time) of these materials. In this work, we perform atomistic simulations to assess the thermal behavior of pure and mixed ceria (with and without zirconia) on metal oxide support (alumina). Larger nanoparticles were found to undergo slower sintering than smaller nanoparticles and sintering rate was less temperature sensitive. Sintering rates were found to be more sensitive to initial separation between nanoparticles. Spherical nanoparticles on an average tend to sinter faster than cylindrical nanoparticles. Introduction of zirconia significantly retards rate of sintering of ceria. The presence of metal oxide support enhances the thermal stability of ceria nanoparticles and when mixed with zirconia no sintering was observed during the time scale of the simulation.

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