Synthesis and evaluation of a ruthenium-copper oxide/silica catalyst derived from microemulsion processing

Bimetallic Ru-Cu catalysts supported on SiO2 have been synthesized in micro emulsions using sodium metasilicate (Na2SiO3), copper nitrate (Cu(NO3)(2). 3H(2)O) and ruthenium chloride (RuCl3) at 28 C-degrees. The microemulsion s ystem consists of sodium 1,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT) and sod ium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), cyclohexane, and an aqueous solution of sodium metasilicate or metal salts. The catalysts have been characterized by XPS, EDX/SEM with line scanning and they possess a very narrow pore size distrib ution (around 38 Angstrom) and relatively high specific surface areas (arou nd 400 m(2)/g). The catalytic results of the N2O decomposition reveal that higher conversions of N2O can be achieved by the catalysts synthesized from the microemulsion process at lower temperatures (around 400 C-degrees).