Browsing by Author "Guerrero, Sichem"

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    (33, 33) Sánchez, Luis; Aguila, Gonzalo; Araya, Paulo; Quijada, Sergio; Guerrero, Sichem; 33
    The transient combustion of biomass leads to the evolution of a variety of pollutants (NO, CO, organic compounds, and many others) that can react with each other on a suitable catalyst to generate compounds of lower toxicity. Here, the transient reduction of NO with CO and naphthalene in the presence of oxygen was studied on a Ca/Cu/YCeO2-TiO2catalyst. Response surface methodology was used to identify the optimum amounts of calcium, copper, and cerium. The optimized Ca/Cu/YCeO2-TiO2catalyst was then extensively studied and characterized. The coupling of yttrium-stabilized ceria with TiO2provided an active support that effectively activated naphthalene. When calcium and copper were added to the support, the obtained Ca/Cu/YCeO2-TiO2catalyst achieved the full conversion of CO and naphthalene and 72% conversion of NO. The Ca/Cu/YCeO2-TiO2catalyst possessed labile oxygen species, which might be related to the high catalytic activity.
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    (33, 33) Aguila, Gonzalo; Calle, Rafael; Guerrero, Sichem; Baeza, Patricio; Araya, Paulo; 33
    CuO-CeO2/SiO2 catalysts lose activity when they are calcined at 600 °C and temperatures above. This loss of activity was related to a decrease in the amount of highly dispersed Cu species interacting with Ce (CuO-CeO2 interface) over the SiO2 support. These species are highly active in CO oxidation, so this reaction was selected to conduct this study. In order to avoid the activity loss in CuO-CeO2/SiO2 catalysts, the effect of high Ce loads (8, 16, 24, and 36%) on the thermal stability of these catalysts was studied. The results reveal that when increasing calcination temperature from 500 to 700 °C, the catalysts with Ce load equal to or higher than 24% increase the formation of highly dispersed Cu interacting with Ce and therefore the activity (90% of CO conversion at 120 °C). In catalysts with Ce load below 24%, Cu species agglomerate and decrease the activity (less than 5% of CO conversion at 120 °C). This journal is
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    (33, 33) Salinas, Daniela; Guerrero, Sichem; Campos, Cristian H.; Bustamante, Tatiana M.; Pecchi, Gina; 33
    The effect of the ZrO2 loading was studied on spherical SiO2@ZrO2-CaO structures synthetized by a simple route that combines the Stöber and sol-gel methods. The texture of these materials was determined using SBET by N2 adsorption, where the increment in SiO2 spheres' surface areas was reached with the incorporation of ZrO2. Combined the characterization techniques of using different alcoholic dissolutions of zirconium (VI) butoxide 0.04 M, 0.06 M, and 0.08 M, we obtained SiO2@ZrO2 materials with 5.7, 20.2, and 25.2 wt % of Zr. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis also uncovered the shape and reproducibility of the SiO2 spheres. The presence of Zr and Ca in the core-shell was also determined by TEM. X-ray diffraction (XRD) profiles showed that the c-ZrO2 phase changed in to m-ZrO2 by incorporating calcium, which was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The purity of the SiO2 spheres, as well as the presence of Zr and Ca in the core-shell, was assessed by the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) method. CO2 temperature programmed desorption (TPD-CO2) measurements confirmed the increment in the amount of the basic sites and strength of these basic sites due to calcium incorporation. The catalyst reuse in FAME production from canola oil transesterification allowed confirmation that these calcium core@shell catalysts turn out to be actives and stables for this reaction.
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    (33, 33) López, Naima; Monte, Manuel; Iglesias-Juez, Ana; Portela, Raquel; Xuyun, Guo; Ye, Zhu; Aguila, Gonzalo; Araya, Paulo; Guerrero, Sichem; 33
    The accumulation of alkali metals generated during biomass combustion onto the catalysts employed for off-gas treatment can have a detrimental effect on their performance. This work investigates the effect of potassium as a model alkali on an efficient copper-based catalyst supported on SmCeO2 @TiO2. The addition of potassium modifies the redox properties of the Cu species or, more specifically, the metal-ceria interface, providing better catalytic activity for NO reduction in oxidizing conditions. SmCeO2 @TiO2 stabilizes highly dispersed copper species, and the presence of potassium introduces surface distortions that modify the lability of oxygen atoms. The results demonstrate the key role of surface defects and labile oxygen species associated with the CeO2 support. It was found that both Cu/SmCeO2 @TiO2 and K/Cu/SmCeO2 @TiO2 catalysts fully oxidized CO below 350 °C and actively reduced NO with CO in the presence of excess oxygen, reaching a maximum NO conversion of 65% at 316 °C and 83% at 330 °C, respectively, while undesired NO2 release was minimized in the alkaline-loaded sample.