Disclosed are a composite oxide which is capable of maintaining a large volume of pores even used in a high temperature environment, and which has excellent heat resistance and catalytic activity, as well as a method for producing the composite oxide and a catalyst for exhaust gas purification employing the composite oxide. The composite oxide contains cerium and at least one element selected from aluminum, silicon, or rare earth metals other than cerium and including yttrium, at a mass ratio of 85:15 to 99:1 in terms oxides, and has a property of exhibiting a not less than 0.30 cm.sup.3/g, preferably not less than 0.40 cm.sup.3/g volume of pores with a diameter of not larger than 200 nm, after calcination at 900° C. for 5 hours, and is suitable for a co-catalyst in a catalyst for vehicle exhaust gas purification.

An object of the present invention is to provide an exhaust gas purification catalyst having improved exhaust gas purifying performance (in particular, improved NOx purifying performance) at low to medium temperature, and, in order to achieve the object, the present invention provides an exhaust gas purification catalyst (10A) including: a substrate (20); and a catalyst layer (30 or 40) formed on the substrate (20), wherein the catalyst layer (30 or 40) contains rhodium element, phosphorus element and a rare earth element other than cerium element, wherein a ratio of a mass of the phosphorus element contained in the catalyst layer (30 or 40) to the mass of the rhodium element contained in the catalyst layer (30 or 40) is from 1 to 10, and wherein a ratio of a mass of the rare earth element other than cerium element in terms of an oxide thereof contained in the catalyst layer (30 or 40) to the mass of the rhodium element contained in the catalyst layer (30 or 40) is from 1 to 5.

An oxygen storage material including a ceria-zirconia based composite oxide containing a composite oxide of ceria and zirconia, wherein the ceria-zirconia based composite oxide comprises at least one rare-earth element selected from the group consisting of lanthanum, yttrium, and neodymium, and an amount of the rare-earth element(s) contained in total is 1 to 10% by atom in terms of element relative to a total amount of cerium and zirconium in the ceria-zirconia based composite oxide, 60 to 85% by atom of the entire amount of the rare-earth element(s) is contained in a near-surface upper-layer region extending from a surface of each primary particle of the ceria-zirconia based composite oxide to a depth of 50 nm in the primary particle, and 15 to 40% by atom of the entire amount of the rare-earth element(s) is contained in a near-surface lower-layer region extending from a depth of 50 nm to a depth of 100 nm in the primary particle, a content ratio of cerium and zirconium in the ceria-zirconia based composite oxide is in a range of 40:60 to 60:40 in terms of an atomic ratio ([Ce]:[Zr]), and the ceria-zirconia based composite oxide has an intensity ratio {I(14/29) value} between a diffraction line at 2θ=14.5° and a diffraction line at 2θ=29° which satisfies the following condition:
I(14/29) value≥0.032,
where the intensity ratio {I(14/29) value} is determined from an X-ray diffraction pattern using CuKα obtained by an X-ray diffraction measurement conducted after heating in air under a temperature condition of 1100° C. for 5 hours.

The invention provides a catalyst composition, including a mixture of catalytically active particles and a magnetic material, such as superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, capable of inductive heating in response to an applied alternating electromagnetic field. The catalytically active particles will typically include a base metal, platinum group metal, oxide of base metal or platinum group metal, or combination thereof, and will be adapted for use in various catalytic systems, such as diesel oxidation catalysts, catalyzed soot filters, lean NOx traps, selective catalytic reduction catalysts, ammonia oxidation catalysts, or three-way catalysts. The invention also includes a system and method for heating a catalyst material, which includes a catalyst article that includes the catalyst composition and a conductor for receiving current and generating an alternating electromagnetic field in response thereto, the conductor positioned such that the generated alternating electromagnetic field is applied to at least a portion of the magnetic material.

The present invention relates to a catalyst washcoat composition comprising a slurry comprising at least one platinum group metal and/or at least one non-platinum group metal supported on at least one support; and at least one pore forming agent having a particle size ranging from 100 nm to 5.0 μm, wherein the pore forming agent is selected from carbon nano-tubes, carbon nano-fibres, activated carbon, resins, cellulose powder, and polymer spheres. The present invention also provides a catalyst article for capturing particulate matter of size ranging from 1.0 nm to 100 μm, said article comprising the catalyst washcoat deposited on a substrate and calcined to form pores of which 50%-100% have a pore size ranging from 100 nm to 5.0 μm.

A cerium-zirconium-aluminum-based composite material, a cGPF catalyst and a preparation method thereof are provided. The cerium-zirconium-aluminum-based composite material adopts a stepwise precipitation method, firstly preparing an aluminum-based pre-treated material, then coprecipitating the aluminum-based pre-treated material with zirconium and cerium sol, and finally roasting at high temperature to obtain the cerium-zirconium-aluminum-based composite material. The cerium-zirconium-aluminum-based composite material has better compactness and higher density, and when it is used in cGPF catalyst, it occupies a smaller volume of pores on the catalyst carrier, such that cGPF catalyst has lower back pressure and better ash accumulation resistance, which is beneficial to large-scale application of cGPF catalyst.

A catalytic composition for treating a NOx-containing exhaust gas, wherein the composition comprises a copper-substituted small-pore zeolite comprising: i) Ce and/or La in a total amount of about 5 to about 400 g/ft.sup.3; and ii) Nd and/or Nb in a total amount of about 5 to about 400 g/ft.sup.3.

A cerium-zirconium oxide-based ionic conductor (CZOIC) material including zirconium oxide in an amount ranging from 5 wt. % up to 95 wt. %, cerium oxide in an amount ranging from 95 wt. % to 5 wt. %, and at least one oxide or a rare earth metal in an amount ranging from 30 wt. % or less, based on the overall mass of the CZOIC material. The CZOIC material exhibits a structure comprising one or more expanded unit cells and a plurality of crystallites having ordered nano-domains. The structure of the CZOIC material exhibits a crystal lattice defined by a d-value measured at multiple (hkl) locations using a SAED technique that exhibit distortions, such that the d-values for the same (hkl) location varies from about 2% to about 5% from the d-value measured for a reference cerium-zirconium material at the same (hkl) location.

Methods for exhaust gas purification, including the steps of: attaching an exhaust gas purification catalyst to an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, and supplying an exhaust gas to the exhaust gas purification catalyst, where the exhaust gas purification catalyst includes an upper layer containing first carrier particles which are particles of an inorganic oxide and rhodium, and a lower layer containing second carrier particles which are particles of an inorganic oxide, the upper layer includes a rhodium-rich portion near the surface of the upper layer on the upstream side of the exhaust gas flow, and the existence range of the rhodium-rich portion is in a range of greater than 50% to 80% of the length of the upper layer from a downstream side end of an exhaust gas flow and of less than 20 μm in the depth direction from an outermost surface of the upper layer.

Methods for exhaust gas purification, including the steps of: attaching an exhaust gas purification catalyst to an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, and supplying an exhaust gas to the exhaust gas purification catalyst, where the exhaust gas purification catalyst includes an upper layer containing first carrier particles which are particles of an inorganic oxide and rhodium, and a lower layer containing second carrier particles which are particles of an inorganic oxide, the upper layer includes a rhodium-rich portion near the surface of the upper layer on the upstream side of the exhaust gas flow, and the existence range of the rhodium-rich portion is in a range of greater than 50% to 80% of the length of the upper layer from a downstream side end of an exhaust gas flow and of less than 20 μm in the depth direction from an outermost surface of the upper layer.