Investigation of Co3O4–CeO2 Composite Oxide as Catalyst for the Decomposition of N2O

Boosting CO2 Electroreduction to C2H4 via Unconventional Hybridization: High-Order Ce4+ 4f and O 2p Interaction in Ce-Cu2O for Stabilizing Cu. ACS NANO 2023. [PMID: 37410800 DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c03952]

Efficient conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into value-added materials and feedstocks, powered by renewable electricity, presents a promising strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and close the anthropogenic carbon loop. Recently, there has been intense interest in Cu₂O-based catalysts for the CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), owing to their capabilities in enhancing C-C coupling. However, the electrochemical instability of Cu⁺ in Cu₂O leads to its inevitable reduction to Cu⁰, resulting in poor selectivity for C₂₊ products. Herein, we propose an unconventional and feasible strategy for stabilizing Cu⁺ through the construction of a Ce⁴⁺ 4f-O 2p-Cu⁺ 3d network structure in Ce-Cu₂O. Experimental results and theoretical calculations confirm that the unconventional orbital hybridization near E_f based on the high-order Ce⁴⁺ 4f and 2p can more effectively inhibit the leaching of lattice oxygen, thereby stabilizing Cu⁺ in Ce-Cu₂O, compared with traditional d-p hybridization. Compared to pure Cu₂O, the Ce-Cu₂O catalyst increased the ratio of C₂H₄/CO by 1.69-fold during the CO₂RR at -1.3 V. Furthermore, in situ and ex situ spectroscopic techniques were utilized to track the oxidation valency of copper under CO₂RR conditions with time resolution, identifying the well-maintained Cu⁺ species in the Ce-Cu₂O catalyst. This work not only presents an avenue to CO₂RR catalyst design involving the high-order 4f and 2p orbital hybridization but also provides deep insights into the metal-oxidation-state-dependent selectivity of catalysts.

Strong Structural Modification of Gd to Co3O4 for Catalyzing N2O Decomposition under Simulated Real Tail Gases

In this paper, Gd-promoted Co₃O₄ catalysts were prepared via a facile coprecipitation method for low-temperature catalytic N₂O decomposition. Due to the addition of Gd, the crystallite size of Co₃O₄ in the Gd_0.06Co catalyst surprisingly decreased to 4.9 nm, which is much smaller than most additive-modified Co₃O₄ catalysts. This huge change in the catalyst's textural structure endows the Gd_0.06Co catalyst with a large specific surface area, plentiful active sites, and a weak Co-O bond. Hence, Gd_0.06Co exhibited superior activity for catalyzing 2000 ppmv N₂O decomposition, and the temperature for the complete catalytic elimination of N₂O was as low as 350 °C. Meanwhile, compared with pure Co₃O₄, E_a decreased from 77.4 to 46.8 kJ·mol^-1 and TOF of the reaction increased from 1.16 × 10^-3 s^-1 to 5.13 × 10^-3 s^-1 at 300 °C. Moreover, Gd_0.06Co displayed a quite stable catalytic performance in the presence of 100 ppmv NO, 5 vol % O₂, and 2 vol % H₂O.