Evaluating the NOx Storage Catalysts (NSC) Aging: A Preliminary Analytical Study with Electronic Microscopy

This paper describes an expeditious and reliable method for determining the thermal effects in a static condition of commercial NOx storage catalysts (NSCs) using scanning electron microscopy with an energy dispersive X-ray analytical system (SEM/EDS). It is worth remarking that possible changes in the morphology and in the elemental composition of the catalyst may be considered as the most important causes of the lower conversion of NOx. The information attained in this work indicates that Pt nanoparticle sintering is strongly increased by the oxygen exposure, and this can be considered a very useful preliminary investigation for the studies already present in the literature on the efficiency of NSCs.