Study on the thermal deactivation of motorcycle catalytic converters by laboratory aging tests

Catalytic converters are used to curb exhaust pollution from motorcycles in Taiwan. A number of factors, including the length of time the converter is used for and driving conditions, affect the catalysts' properties during periods of use. The goal of this study is to resolve the thermal deactivation mechanism of motorcycle catalytic converters. Fresh catalysts were treated under different aging conditions by laboratory-scale aging tests to simulate the operation conditions of motorcycle catalytic converters. The aged catalysts were characterized by analytical techniques in order to provide information for investigating deactivation phenomena. The time-dependent data of specific surface areas were subsequently used to construct kinetics of sintering at the specific temperature. According to the analytical results of the catalysts' properties, the increase in aging temperature causes an increase in pore size of the catalysts and a decrease in the specific surface area. The aged catalysts all exhibited lower performances than the fresh ones. The reduction in catalytic activity is consistent with the reduction in the loss of specific surface area. The finding of catalytic properties' dependence on temperature is consistent with the thermally activated theory. In contrast, the effect of the aging time on the specific surface area was only significant during the initial few hours. The high correlation between specific surface areas measured by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method and predicted by the constructed model verifies that the prediction models can predict the sintering rate reasonably under the aging conditions discussed in this study. As compared to automobile catalytic converters, the differences of structures and aging conditions are made less obvious by the deactivation phenomena of motorcycles.