Exhaust gas purification catalyst

An exhaust gas purification catalyst for being disposed in an exhaust pipe of an internal combustion engine and purifying exhaust gas emitted by the internal combustion engine, the catalyst comprising:

• a substrate;
• a catalyst layer formed on the substrate and containing at least palladium (Pd) and rhodium (Rh) as a metal functioning as an oxidation and/or reduction catalyst,
• a carrier that supports the metal, and
• an OSC material having oxygen storage capacity,
• wherein
• the catalyst layer has, when disposed in the exhaust pipe, a front section positioned upstream in an exhaust gas flow direction within the exhaust pipe, and a rear section positioned downstream of the front section in the exhaust gas flow direction;
• the front section contains palladium (Pd) as the metal but does not contain the OSC material;
• and
• a proportion of the front section of the catalyst layer, at an upstream leading end in the exhaust gas flow direction, is 10% to 40% with respect to 100% of a total length of the substrate.