CHAPTER 4: Preferential Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide over Gold Catalysts

Innovative recent research has shown that gold in a highly dispersed state can exceptionally catalyze preferential CO oxidation (PROX) reaction and be effectively employed in fuel cell applications. Several factors control the activity and the selectivity of gold catalysts and can affect their efficiency in the title process. Following the pioneer work of Haruta and Hutchings, a variety of nanostructured gold‐based systems has been evaluated in the recent literature as PROX catalysts. However, contradictory approaches have been proposed with respect to the mechanism and the nature of active sites. This chapter reviews most recent reports with special attention on Au/ceria based catalysts and highlights the key factors that control the activity and selectivity of these catalytic systems.