Selective oxidation of glycerol on morphology controlled ceria nanomaterials

Abstract

Ceria has attracted great interest in heterogeneous catalysis due to its facile exchange between Ce³⁺ and Ce⁴⁺. In particular, in this work it is reported, for the first time, that morphology controlled ceria without any addition of other metal exhibits catalytic activity for the selective oxidation of glycerol. Singularly, ceria nanorods present the highest catalytic activity among all tested materials, which can be attributed to their highest surface area. Nevertheless, surface crystallography plays a key role in determining the catalytic activity and selectivity of these nanocatalysts, as proven by TEM, Raman and XPS analyses. In particular, the development of {111} ceria nanofacets on ceria nanocubes strongly affects both activity and selectivity in the selective oxidation of glycerol. On the other hand, Ce³⁺ surface content cannot be discarded as an important factor in the catalytic activity of ceria nanoparticles for this specific redox reaction.