Pastor Pérez, Laura, Belda-Alcázar, Victor, Marini, Carlo, Pastor-Blas, M. Mercedes, Sepúlveda-Escribano, Antonio, Ramos-Fernández, Enrique V. Effect of cold Ar plasma treatment on the catalytic performance of Pt/CeO2 in water-gas shift reaction (WGS) Applied Catalysis B: Environmental. 2018, 225: 121-127. doi:10.1016/j.apcatb.2017.11.065 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/71555 DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2017.11.065 ISSN: 0926-3373 (Print) Abstract: The effect of Ar plasma treatment on the catalytic performance of Pt/CeO2 has been studied. The catalyst was activated using different procedures separately or in combination: calcination, reduction under pure H2 and cold Ar plasma treatment. The resulting materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray adsorption near edge structure and temperature-programmed reduction with H2. The resulting materials were tested in the water-gas shift reaction (WGS). It has been found that the combination of calcination, plasma and hydrogen treatments leads to a very active catalyst for WGS. Furthermore, the catalyst structure–performance relationship has been assessed. The plasma treatment generated electron-enriched Pt particles which show a very strong interaction with the ceria support. This favoured CO chemisorption and increased the reducibility of the support, which takes part in the WGS the reaction by favouring water splitting. Keywords:Plasma, Water-gas shift, Platinum, XANES, XPS Elsevier info:eu-repo/semantics/article