Tuning the pore structure of mesoporous Co3O4 materials for ethanol oxidation to acetaldehyde

A one-pot method for preparing mesoporous Co3O4 catalysts via self-assembly method is presented. The physicochemical properties of the corresponding catalysts were studied using XRD, BET, O-2-TPD, H-2-TPR, HRTEM, and In-situ DRIFT. The results showed that changing the molecular chain length of swelling agents can effectively adjust the pore size, pore volume, and specific surface area, further improving the catalytic performances of the corresponding mesoporous Co3O4 catalyst. Effective control of pore structure and crystal size can ensure the supply of reactive oxygen species. Importantly, large and suitable pore size is beneficial to the desorption of desirable product acetaldehyde, which limits the continued oxidation reaction to obtain high acetaldehyde selectivity. Moreover, it is very meaningful and challenging to selectively oxidize ethanol to acetaldehyde with high selectivity at low temperature in the chemical industry.The ethanol conversion is about 70% at 200 degrees C, and the acetaldehyde selectivity is up to 98.5% on the Co-He catalyst.