Development of paper exhaust catalyst material for emission control in small internal combustion engines

We have investigated the catalytic performance of a porous-structured paper containing noble metal catalysts such as platinum (Pt) and rhodium (Rh) supported on a thermally stabilized alumina (Al₂O₃). The catalysts were prepared by the usual impregnation method first, and then introduced into the macro porous-structured paper as catalytic active sites during the papermaking process. When the resultant paper was calcined at 1000°C for 60 h, it showed similar catalytic performance compared with the original powder-like catalyst. Particularly, the paper containing freshly prepared catalyst showed superior performance than a paper containing a commercially available alumina as support material. A small sized honeycomb-like structure was successfully prepared by using the catalyst paper, and this clearly indicates that the paper is a promising catalytic material for controlling exhaust emissions from small engines.