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A Ni/CeO2/ZrO2 catalyst with improved redox properties has been washcoated onto a honeycomb cordierite monolith in the form of a nonconventional alumina-catalyst layer, just a few nanometer thick. In spite of the very low active phase loading, the monolith depicts outstanding performance in dry reforming of methane, both in terms of activity, with values reaching the thermodynamic limit already at 750 C, even under extreme weight Hourly Space Velocities (WHSV 115-346 L.g-1.h-1), as well as in terms of stability during prolonged time on stream (TOS 24-48 h)., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 19 references. Gold Open Access

Redox and catalytic performance in total methane oxidation of a nonostructured ceria-terbia catalyst supported on magnesia is presented and compared to that of a pure ceria catalyst supported on MgO. The investigated material, Ce0.5Tb0.5Ox (3% mol.)/MgO, features several remarkable properties: a quite low total molar loading of the two lanthanide elements, high reducibility, as well as very high oxygen storage capacity al low temperatures and higher activity than MgO-supported ceria. In terms of lanthanide atomic content the catalytic performance of Ce0.5Tb0.5Ox (3% mol.)/MgO largely improves compared to that of bulk type ceria and ceria-magnesia solid solutions. Such a behavior implies proper optimization of the usage of lanthanide elements. A second contribution to atomic economy in the catalyst design relates to the fact that the new formulation demonstrate a stabilyty in the redox and catalytic performance against very high temperature treatments. An investigation on the structure of both the fresh and high-temperature-aged catalyst at the atomic scale by means of complementary aberration corrected microscopy techniques, reveals the ocuurrence of a variety of exotic, lanthanide-containing nanostructures, which span fron isolated, atomically dispersed Ln species to nonometer-sized CeTbO2-x patches, extended CeTbO2-x bilayers and 2D CeTbO2-x nanoparticles. Nanoanalytical results evidence the mixing of the two lanthanides at atomic levels in these nanostructures. The combined effects of nanostructuring, mixing of the lanthanides at the atomic level, and interaction with the MgO oxide are the roots of the improvement in funtional, redox and catalytic properties of the novel Ce0.5Tb0.5Ox (3% mol.)/MgO catalyst., Comment: 11 pages, eight figures, 3 tables, 60 references

Supported Ni catalysts (4,5% wt%) using a Ce-Zr oxide (18/82 molar ratio and a ceria rich surface) depicting advanced redox properties, were deposited by washcoating over cordierite honeycombs (230 and 400 cpsi). FIB-STEM unveiled nanostructure details otherwise undistinguishable by conventional techniques. The catalytic performance was evaluated in the dry reforming of methane al 700-900 degree C, using a CH4:CO2 1:1 feddstock, and exploring high Weight Hourly Space Velocity (115-346 L.g-1.h-1). The structured catalyts exhibited better performance than the corresponding powers, reaching values close to rhermodynamics limits for booth reactants conversion and H2/CO ratio, from 750 dgree C, and no deactivation was observed in prolongued experiments (24-48 h). This was related to both the high catalytic efficiency after being deposited with low loading on the cordierite and the intrinsic advantages of the monolithic reactor, like preventing from the kinetic control that operates in powdered samples under high WHSV or limiting the deactivation., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, 61 references

In this paper, we develop an enhanced version of the catching-up algorithm for sweeping processes through an appropriate concept of approximate projections. We establish some properties of this notion of approximate projection. Then, under suitable assumptions, we show the convergence of the enhanced catching-up algorithm for prox-regular, subsmooth, and merely closed sets. Finally, we discuss efficient numerical methods for obtaining approximate projections. Our results recover classical existence results in the literature and provide new insight into the numerical simulation of sweeping processes., Comment: 23 pages

In this paper, we study integral functionals defined on spaces of functions with values on general (non-separable) Banach spaces. We introduce a new class of integrands and multifunctions for which we obtain measurable selection results. Then, we provide an interchange formula between integration and infimum, which enables us to get explicit formulas for the conjugate and Clarke subdifferential of integral functionals. Applications to expected functionals from stochastic programming, optimality conditions for a calculus of variation problem and sweeping processes are given.

Under mild assumptions, we prove that any random multifunction can be represented as the set of minimizers of an infinitely many differentiable normal integrand, which preserves the convexity of the random multifunction. We provide several applications of this result to the approximation of random multifunctions and integrands. The paper ends with a characterization of the set of integrable selections of a measurable multifunction as the set of minimizers of an infinitely many differentiable integral function., Comment: 23 pages