A Review of Research on the Enhancement of the Low-Temperature Activity of Automotive Three-Way Catalysts

With the continuous implementation of the dual carbon strategy, the motor vehicle emission control standards keep tightening, and the treatment of the exhaust pollutants during the cold start stage of gasoline vehicles has become a key research topic in the catalysis field. The three-way catalyst (Three-Way Catalyst, TWC), as the core component of the gasoline vehicle exhaust purification, has insufficient catalytic activity at low temperature and low pollutant conversion efficiency under cold start conditions, which has hindered the further upgrade of emission regulations. This paper reviews the internal causes of the deterioration of the three-way catalyst low temperature performance, covering several problems such as the adsorption poisoning on the surface of precious metals, the insufficient oxygen migration capability of the oxygen storage material at low temperature and the competitive adsorption of water vapor. Around three directions, namely the modification of precious metal active components, the modification of the oxygen storage support and the regulation of the metal-support interface interaction, the research progress of the existing modification methods is summarized, with emphasis on the application potential of single atom catalysis, high entropy oxide oxygen storage materials and electrically heated catalytic integration technology in low temperature three-way catalysis. Based on the existing research results, the practical gap between the laboratory conditions and the industrial application is compared, and future research directions such as the development of aging resistant multifunctional catalysts and the computational catalysis assisted material screening are prospected.