The nature of gold species in Au/CeX Zr1-X O2 catalysts was successfully investigated using the visible and near infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed carbon monoxide. It was found that the visible and near infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy is a powerful technique for investigating the changes of gold particle size due to addition of zirconium and the oxidation state of gold particles. It was also noted that the increase of zirconium in the solids makes gold incorporation more difficult due to the electronic shielding caused by zirconium, decreasing the probability of replacing cerium by gold. For the samples studied, the particle size ranged from 20-30 nm and the Au+, Au3+ and Auº species were found in the catalysts.

In recent years nanomaterials, such as metallic nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotapes, nanotubes and nanocomposites, have attracted increasing interest for several technological applications. In catalysis, the great potential of nanomaterials is related to the high catalytic activity exhibited by these materials as a function of the high surface/volume ratio when the particles acquire diameter below 5 nm. In this work, a review about concepts and background of nanoscience and nanotechnology is presented with emphasis in catalysis. Special attention is given to gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes, focusing the properties and characteristics of these materials in several catalytic reactions.

The activity of copper-doped hematite in the SCR with propane, in the presence of oxygen, was evaluated in this work. It was found that copper sulfate led to the production of solids with different specific surface areas depending on the amount of copper. The sulfur and copper species were mainly located on the surface. The copper-containing catalysts were more active in the reduction of nitrogen oxides and less active in the propane oxidation as compared to pure hematite. This behavior was assigned to an association of both sulfur and copper species to produce new sites active for NO reduction.