Morphology-activity correlation of electrospun CeO2 for toluene catalytic combustion

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2020-05, Vol.247, p.125860-125860, Article 125860
• Main Authors: Yan, Dengfeng, Mo, Shengpeng, Sun, Yuhai, Ren, Quanming, Feng, Zhentao, Chen, Peirong, Wu, Junliang, Fu, Mingli, Ye, Daiqi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CeO2 nanobelts; Electrospinning; Porous structure; Toluene catalytic combustion; VOCs abatement
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.125860

Herein, CeO2 catalysts with nanotube, nanobelt, and wire-in-nanotube morphologies were successfully fabricated by a facile single spinneret electrospinning technique. And catalytic activity of these electrospun CeO2 nanomaterials were evaluated by toluene catalytic combustion reaction. Among the three morphologies of CeO2 catalysts, CeO2 nanobelt (CeO2-NB) presented the best toluene catalytic combustion performance (T90% = 230 °C) at WHSV = 60,000 mL g−1 h−1, also exhibited the lowest activation energy (Ea = 80.2 kJ/mol). Based on the characterization by TEM, XRD, BET, SEM, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, H2-TPR, and O2-TPD results, the high catalytic activity of CeO2-NB catalyst was attributed to its porous nanobelt morphology with larger specific surface area and the abundance of surface oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, the CeO2-NB catalysts presented an excellent durability by longtime on-stream test (as well as presence of 5% vol. water vapor), suggesting its great potential for practical air pollution control application. [Display omitted] •Electrospun 1D CeO2 nanomaterials with three different morphologies were successfully fabricated.•A possible morphology formation mechanism of CeO2 nanotube, nanobelt and wire-in-nanotube was proposed.•CeO2-NB catalyst exhibited the best toluene catalytic activity due to the porous nanobelts morphology.