In the present study, two industry primary and secondary zinc dialkyldithiophosphate standards, ZDDP1 and ZDDP2, respectively, are evaluated for their impact on the performance of Pd-based three-way catalyst and bench-marked against two mixed lubricant additives formed from either ZDDP1 or ZDDP2 with a second-generation oil-miscible phosphoric-containing ionic liquid (IL). The three-way catalysts (TWCs) are exposed to the lubricant additives in an engine bench under four different scenarios: a base case with no additive (NA), ZDDP1, IL+ZDDP1, ZDDP2, and IL+ZDDP2. The engine-aged TWC samples are characterized through a variety of analytical techniques, including evaluation of catalyst reactivity in a bench-flow reactor. With respect to the water–gas shift reaction and the oxygen storage capacity, the ZDDP2- and IL+ZDDP2-aged TWC samples are more degraded than the ZDDP1- and IL+ZDDP1-aged TWC samples. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicate that phosphorus in the form of CePO₄ was found to be present in the washcoat of all TWC samples, with the highest amount found in the ZDDP2-aged TWC sample. The results obtained from XRD are further confirmed by those from inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), which show that more phosphorus is detected in the washcoat of ZDDP2- and IL+ZDDP2-aged TWC samples than in the ZDDP1- and IL+ZDDP1-aged TWC samples.

Boron-containing compounds are one of the lubricant additive options due to their suitable properties for additives and have been used as commercial lubricant additives. In the present study, the impact of a boron-containing lubricant oil additive, AR9100 (BR), on Pd/Rh-based three-way catalyst (TWC) performance is investigated, and the results are compared with the baseline no-additive (NA) case and the industry standard zinc dialkyl-dithiophosphate (ZDDP) results. Accelerated engine aging is performed using a genset to expose the catalysts to lubricant additives at high temperatures. All aged TWC samples are investigated for reactivity in a bench-flow reactor and characterized using a variety of analytical techniques. Compared with the no-additive case, the temperatures of 90% conversion (T₉₀) of NO, CO, C₃H₆, and C₃H₈ for the ZDDP-aged TWC sample increased by 34, 30, 37, and 48 °C. However, the T₉₀ of all gas species for the BR-aged TWC sample are similar to the NA-aged TWC sample. Additionally, a significant decrease in water–gas shift reactivity and oxygen storage capacity is observed in the ZDDP-aged sample, but not in the BR-aged sample. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) maps of accelerated engine aging samples show the presence of phosphorus and boron in ZDDP- and BR-aged TWC samples, respectively. However, no boron-related peaks are observed in the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the BR-aged TWC sample, which may exist in the form of an amorphous phase.