Cobalt Phthalocyanine Supported on Mesoporous CeO2 as an Active Molecular Catalyst for CO Oxidation

Heterogenization of biomolecules by immobilizing on a metal oxide support could greatly enhance their catalytic activity and stability, but their interactions are generally weak. Herein, cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) molecules were firmly anchored on a Ce-based metal-organic framework (Ce-BTC) due to pi-pi stacking interaction between CoPc and aromatic frameworks of the BTC linker, which was followed by a calcination treatment to convert Ce-BTC to mesoporous CeO2 and realize a molecular-level dispersion of CoPc on the surface of CeO2. Various characterization results confirm the successful fabrication of molecular-based CoPc/CeO2 catalysts which exhibited good CO oxidation performance. Importantly, we found that the mixing manner of Ce-BTC and CoPc remarkably affects the physicochemical properties which then determined the catalytic performance of the resultant CoPc/CeO2 catalysts. In contrast, the direct physical mixing of CoPc and CeO2 led to poor performance toward CO oxidation, manifesting that the Ce-BTC-mediated CoPc loading strategy is promising for the heterogenization of catalytic biomolecules.

Automated summary

This study immobilized cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) molecules on a Ce-based metal-organic framework (Ce-BTC) and converted it to mesoporous CeO2, achieving molecular-level dispersion of CoPc on the surface of CeO2. The resulting CoPc/CeO2 catalysts showed good CO oxidation performance. The mixing manner of Ce-BTC and CoPc significantly affected the physicochemical properties and catalytic performance, indicating the promising potential of Ce-BTC-mediated CoPc loading strategy for heterogenization of catalytic biomolecules.