High catalytic performance of neodymium modified Co_(3)O_(4) for toluene oxidation

Co-based catalysts are the most promising catalysts in catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds(VOCs).Precious metal doping is adopted to improve the catalytic activity of toluene on Co_(3)O_(4) catalysts,but greatly increases its cost along with it.It is found that doping a small amount of rare earth(Ce,Pr,Sm and Nd)can dramatically promote the catalytic activity of Co_(3)O_(4).Especially,the Nd-doped Co_(3)O_(4) catalyst exhibits excellent catalytic activity with a toluene removal rate of 90% at 162.1℃,which is even better than that of Pt-doped Co_(3)O_(4).Compared with other rare earth metal doping,the Nd doping leads to a higher ratio of Co^(3+)/Co^(2+) and has more oxygen vacancies.The in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy(DRIFTS)experiments show that the lattice oxygen of Nd-Co sample can be utilized at a quite low temperature,while that of pure Co_(3)O_(4) cannot engage in oxidation reaction when the temperature is below 200℃,which visually demonstrates the main reason for the improved catalytic performance of Nd-Co catalyst.