Exhaust gas purification device

Abstract

A catalytic converter (9) is interposed in an exhaust passage (3) of an internal combustion engine (1). In the converter (9), a plurality of carriers (21A-21D) are disposed in series with gaps (G1-G3). Each carrier (21A-21D) comprises a hydrocarbon trapping layer (25), a three-way catalyst layer (26) and a number of passages (24) facing the three-way catalyst layer (26). The gaps (G1-G3) interrupts heat transfer between the carriers in order to retard temperature increase in the hydrocarbon trapping layer (25) and promotes a turbulence in exhaust gas flow in the converter (9) in order to homogenize the exhaust gas dispersion in a radial direction, thereby enhancing the hydrocarbon purification performance of the converter (9).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.