Carbon Monoxide Oxidation on Copper Manganese Oxides Prepared by Selective Etching with Ammonia

A series of copper manganese oxides were prepared using a selective etching technique with various amounts of ammonia added during the co-precipitation process. The effect of the ammonia etching on the structure and catalytic properties of the copper manganese oxides was investigated using elemental analysis, nitrogen physisorption, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, H2 temperature-programmed reduction, and O2 temperature-programmed desorption combined with catalytic oxidation of CO. It was found that ammonia can selectively remove copper species from the copper manganese oxides, which correspondingly generates more defects in these oxides. An oxygen spillover from the manganese to the copper species was observed by H2 temperature-programmed desorption, indicating that ammonia etching enhanced the mobility of lattice oxygen species in these oxides. The O2 temperature-programmed desorption measurements further revealed that ammonia etching improved the ability of these oxides to release lattice oxygen. The improvement in redox properties of the copper manganese oxides following ammonia etching was associated with enhanced catalytic performance for CO oxidation.