A novel Pd/Al2O3 catalyst prepared by glow discharge plasma technology is reported.The results of H2-chemisorption indicate that palladium dispersion of the plasma-prepared Pd/Al2O3 reaches 29.7%

which is about 5 times higher than Pd/Al2O3 prepared by conventional preparation.Meanwhile

the particle diameter of the plasma-prepared catalyst is 3.8 nm

but the particle diameter of the conventional catalyst is 20.4 nm.Such plasma-prepared Pd/Al2O3 catalyst shows a higher activity for catalytic combustion of methane than the conventional catalyst.Methane conversion reaches 90% at 400 ℃

but it is only near 30% for the conventional catalyst at the same temperature.