A glucose-assisted redox hydrothermal route to prepare a Mn-doped CeO2 catalyst for the total catalytic oxidation of VOCs

Abstract

In this study, a novel glucose-assisted redox hydrothermal method has been presented to prepare an Mn-doped CeO₂ catalyst (denoted as Mn-CeO₂-R) for the first time. The obtained catalyst contains uniform nanoparticles with a small crystallite size, a large mesopore volume, and rich active surface oxygen species. Such features collectively contribute to improving the catalytic activity for the total catalytic oxidation of methanol (CH₃OH) and formaldehyde (HCHO). Interestingly, the large mesopore volume feature of the Mn-CeO₂-R samples could be considered an essential factor to eliminate the diffusion limit, favoring the total oxidation of toluene (C₇H₈) at high conversion. Therefore, the Mn-CeO₂-R catalyst outperforms both bare CeO₂ and conventional Mn-CeO₂ catalysts with T₉₀ values of 150 °C and 178 °C for HCHO and CH₃OH, respectively, and 315 °C for C₇H₈, at a high GHSV of 60 000 mL g⁻¹ h⁻¹. Such robust catalytic activities signify a potential utilization of Mn-CeO₂-R for the catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).