Transition metal (Ni, Cu and Fe) substituted Co₃O₄–ZrO₂ catalysts (NiCZ, CuCZ and FeCZ, respectively) were synthesized by PEG assisted sonochemical synthesis and tested for lean methane combustion. These catalysts offered complete combustion of methane by generating CO₂ and steam as products. The strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) allowed the high catalytic activity at temperatures below 600 °C. All catalysts have shown superior stability for 20 h of time on stream conditions. In practical conditions, SO₂ presence is obvious in methane feed, even trace levels of it inhibits the catalytic activity to a greater extent. In this study, the performance of catalysts and reaction mechanism was evaluated in presence of SO₂ in reactant feed using packed bed catalytic activity studies and in situ FTIR. Among all catalysts, FeCZ has shown superior catalytic activity even under SO₂ in the feed compared to NiCZ and CuCZ. The apparent activation energy was found to be larger in case of SO₂ presence for all the catalysts. The structural and reducibility properties have been characterized with the XRD, XPS, TEM and H₂–TPR studies.

通过PEG辅助声化学合成合成了过渡金属（Ni，Cu和Fe）取代的Co ₃ O ₄ -ZrO ₂催化剂（分别为NiCZ，CuCZ和FeCZ），并进行了贫甲烷燃烧试验。这些催化剂通过产生CO ₂和蒸汽副产物，使甲烷完全燃烧。强大的金属-载体相互作用（SMSI）在低于600°C的温度下具有很高的催化活性。所有催化剂在物流条件下均显示出出色的稳定性，持续20小时。在实际条件下，SO ₂甲烷进料中存在明显的甲烷，即使痕量甲烷也能在更大程度上抑制催化活性。在这项研究中，使用填充床催化活性研究和原位FTIR评估了反应物进料中SO ₂存在下催化剂的性能和反应机理。在所有催化剂中，FeCZ与NiCZ和CuCZ相比，甚至在进料中的SO ₂下也显示出优异的催化活性。发现在所有催化剂中都存在SO _2的情况下，表观活化能更大。通过XRD，XPS，TEM和H ₂ -TPR研究对结构和还原性进行了表征。