Recently, car manufacturers have developed "4 way" catalytic converters in order to couple hydrocarbon and CO oxidation, soot combustion and DeNOx fonctions on a single monolith. Several studies showed that the NOx storage capacity of NSR catalysts is reduced in the presence of soot. The aim of this work is to investigate the effect of carbon NSR catalyst contact on the ability of the catalyst to store NOx. The results show that the presence of carbon black in the catalytic bed involves a decrease of adsorbed nitrates stability and of the NOx storage capacity of materials. It is proposed that the proximity of the carbon particles and NOx adsorbents sites leads to a reduction of the stored nitrates species. The decrease of the NOx storage capacity is Jess important when platinum is present in the catalytic material composition. In agreement with previous studies on the catalytic combustion of soot, it is suggested that platinum increases the number of surface-oxygen complexes -C(O), which thus led to a decrease in the reducing character of carbon. Our study reveals that the deactivation of the NOx storage activity due to carbon-catalyst contact is an irreversible phenomena, and thus even when all carbon is burnt. Characterization of materials by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that sintering of the platinum particles and a structural modification of the barium particles occurs after that the catalysts was in contact with carbon. The decrease in the NOx storage activity of the materials is then assigned to a lesser proximity of the oxidizing sites (Pt) and adsorption sites (Al or Ba).
