Nonprecious catalytic honeycombs structured with three dimensional hierarchical Co3O4 nano-arrays for high performance nitric oxide oxidation

A new type of noble metal-free catalytic honeycomb has been successfully developed by rational assembly of hierarchical Co3O4 nano-arrays on three dimensional ceramic honeycomb substrates. Different cobalt precursors were found to induce different assembly fashions for Co3O4 nano-array growth. Different Co3O4 growth mechanisms including dumbbell aggregation and elongation-splitting have been proposed to interpret the morphology evolution. The Co3O4 nano-array based catalytic honeycombs exhibit high performance catalytic NO oxidation with conversion efficiency as high as 80% at 275 degrees C. Such catalytic honeycombs were able to sustain their high NO conversion under either cyclic or long term steady isothermal operation and demonstrate excellent temperature fluctuation adaptability. The NO conversion capability of Co3O4 nano-arrays was determined by the amount of Co3+ on the surface, which acts as the active sites. Increased surface area enabled by small grain size and porous nature of nanowires promotes low temperature NO conversion. Thermal annealing at different temperatures was demonstrated to tune the porosity, grain size and thus the surface area of Co3O4 nano-arrays, which further influence the catalytic activity.