Effect of Oxygen Concentration on Aging of TWC Catalysts

A common practice to improve vehicle fuel economy is to employ a fuel cut-off strategy on deceleration. This practice exposes the TWC exhaust catalyst to varying concentrations of oxygen depending on the vehicle control strategy. Since it is well known that exposure to oxygen at high temperature is deleterious to long term catalyst durability, it is important to understand the impact of oxygen concentration and temperature on catalyst performance. Simulated fuel cut agings at about 1%, 3%, and 9% oxygen concentration were compared to a full fuel cut aging (21% oxygen concentration). It was found that even small concentrations of oxygen at high temperature damaged catalyst performance. Deactivation increased with increasing oxygen concentration and increasing temperature.