A exhaust gas purification apparatus is provided with: a substrate having a wall-flow structure and including entry-side cells, exit-side cells, and a porous partition; a first catalyst region formed in small diameter pores having relatively small pore diameters among internal pores in the partition; and a second catalyst region formed in large diameter pores having relatively large pore diameters among the internal pores in the partition. The first catalyst region contains a support and any one or two species of precious metal selected from Pt, Pd, and Rh loaded on the support, while the second catalyst region contains a support and any one or two species of precious metal selected from Pt, Pd, and Rh loaded on the support and other than at least the precious metal present in the first catalyst region.

The invention relates to a wall-flow filter as a particle filter with catalytically active coatings in the channels which are closed in a gas-tight manner at the opposing closed ends of the channels A at the first end, wherein the inlet region of the filter is additionally supplied with a dry powder-gas aerosol which contains metal compounds with a high melting point (such as the metal oxides Al2O3, SiO2, FeO2, TiO2, ZnO2, etc. for example) and which is to simultaneously improve the catalytic activity and the degree of filtration efficiency with respect to the exhaust gas back-pressure.

An exhaust-gas purification system of an internal combustion engine includes an electrically heated catalytic device and a three-way catalytic device. The electrically heated catalytic device includes a first honeycomb base having a large number of honeycomb passages and a first catalyst component that is supported on, by a predetermined thin-film treatment, surfaces that define the honeycomb passages and that contains one or more types of noble metals. The three-way catalytic device includes a second honeycomb base having a large number of honeycomb passages and a second catalyst component that is supported on surfaces defining the honeycomb passages and that contains one or more types of noble metals. The total noble metal content per unit volume of the second honeycomb base is higher than the total noble metal content per unit volume of the first honeycomb base.

An exhaust gas purification device suppresses a pressure loss increase and includes a honeycomb substrate and inflow cell side catalyst layer. The substrate includes a porous partition wall defining several cells extending from an inflow side end surface to an outflow side end surface. The cells include an inflow and outflow cell adjacent across the wall. The inflow cell has an open inflow side end and sealed outflow side end. The outflow cell has a sealed inflow side end and open outflow side end. The catalyst layer is on an inflow cell side surface in an region extending from the inflow side end positioned 10% or more of the partition wall length. At this position, a filled portion of the inflow cell side catalyst layer pores are 40% or less. The pores are present to a depth of 50% of a thickness of the partition wall.

A heater may include: a conductive ceramic cylinder tube in which cell-arrays are concentrically arranged, each cell-array including cells which are arranged in a circumferential direction of the ceramic cylinder tube; an inner electrode electrically coupled to an inner wall portion of the ceramic cylinder tube; and an outer electrode electrically coupled to an outer wall portion of the ceramic cylinder tube. Non-linear portions are radially arranged in the ceramic cylinder tube, each non-linear portion extending in a radial direction of the ceramic cylinder tube while having a plurality of bends or curves between the inner wall portion and outer wall portion of the ceramic cylinder tube. The inner and outer electrodes are provided such that current flows radially at least via said non-linear portions between the inner and outer electrodes.

A heating device comprises a heating element having a central area and a peripheral edge. The heating element has a series of slots delimiting a series of longitudinal branches connected to one another by elbows. The central area is made of a first electrically conductive material that is permeable to exhaust gases and has a first relative density. The elbows are located in the peripheral edge and are made of a second electrically conductive material and that has a second relative density greater than the first relative density.

The invention relates to a wall-flow filter as a particle filter with catalytically active coatings in the channels which are closed in a gas-tight manner at the opposing closed ends of the channels A at the first end, wherein the inlet region of the filter is additionally supplied with a dry powder-gas aerosol which contains metal compounds with a high melting point (such as the metal oxides Al203, Si02, Fe02, Ti02, Zn02, etc. for example) and which is to simultaneously improve the catalytic activity and the degree of filtration efficiency with respect to the exhaust gas back-pressure.

A honeycomb filter body comprises: a clean filter pressure drop of (P.sub.1) and a clean filtration efficiency of (FE.sub.1); a porous ceramic honeycomb body comprising a first end, a second end, and a plurality of walls having wall surfaces defining a plurality of inner channels, the porous ceramic honeycomb body comprising a base clean filter pressure drop (P.sub.0) and a base clean filtration efficiency (FE.sub.0); and a porous inorganic layer disposed on one or more of the wall surfaces of the porous ceramic honeycomb body.

A honeycomb structure includes a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure body having a porous partition wall and a circumferential wall, wherein the partition wall and the circumferential wall are integrally formed product made of the same material, a porosity of the partition wall is 45 to 70%, when a material strength of the material constituting the partition wall is set to F [MPa], a thermal conductivity of the material is set to k [W/mL], a bulk density of the honeycomb structure body is set to ρ [g/cc], a Young's modulus of the material is set to E [GPa], a thermal expansion coefficient of the material is set to α [10.sup.−6/° C.], and in a section orthogonal to the extending direction of the cells of the honeycomb structure body, a difference in thickness of the circumferential wall is set to ΔT [mm], P calculated by the following equation (1) is 3.0 or more.

P=F×k×ρ/(E×α×ΔT)   Equation (1)

A honeycomb structure has partition walls defining a plurality of hexagonal cells the partition walls are constituted by combining standard partition walls having a partition wall thickness in a range smaller than ±10% to an average partition wall thickness of the partition walls, wide partition walls having a partition wall thickness of +10% or more to the average partition wall thickness, and narrow partition walls having a partition wall thickness of −10% or less to the average partition wall thickness, and a non-standard partition wall ratio is in a range of 10% to 30% which is a ratio occupied by a subtotal number of non-standard partition walls obtained by adding the wide partition walls and the narrow partition walls in a total number of the partition walls which is obtained by adding the numbers of the standard partition walls, the wide partition walls and the narrow partition walls.