Facile fabrication of hollow structured Cu-Ce binary oxides and their catalytic properties for toluene combustion

A series of hollow structured CuCeOx composite catalysts with different Cu/Ce molar ratios were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal approach, which were applied in catalytic combustion of toluene. The XRD and Raman results indicate that partial of Cu ions are incorporated into CeO2 lattice, forming Cu-O-Ce solid solution. This strengthens the synergistic interaction between CuO and CeO2, enhancing the amounts of oxygen vacancies and low-temperature reducibility. Among the serial catalysts, the Cu6Ce4Ox catalyst exhibits superior catalytic performance, and its 90% conversion (T90) is 260 celcius. The high surface area, low-temperature reducibility, and abundant surface active oxygen species are main factors for superior catalytic performance. The DRIFTs result further clarifies the possible pathway for toluene oxidation, that toluene is converted via benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and benzoate species as main intermediates and is finally decomposed to CO2 and H2O.

Automated summary

A series of hollow structured CuCeOx composite catalysts with different Cu/Ce molar ratios were synthesized via a simple hydrothermal approach and applied in catalytic combustion of toluene. Among the catalysts, Cu6Ce4Ox catalyst showed superior catalytic performance, attributed to its high surface area, low-temperature reducibility, and abundant surface active oxygen species. The DRIFTs results revealed the possible pathway for toluene oxidation, involving intermediates such as benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, and benzoate species leading to decomposition into CO2 and H2O.