Catalytic oxidation of hydrocarbons over Co3O4 catalyst prepared by CVD

The total oxidation of C2H2, C3H6, C3H8, n-C4H8, n-C4H10 and i-C4H10 was studied in a monolithic flow reactor under temperature-programmed mode and highly diluted conditions. The non-catalytic combustion of the investigated hydrocarbons leads to a substantial formation of CO and traces of methane at intermediate temperatures. This drawback was suppressed upon the deposition of a thin layer of Co3O4 on the monolith and all investigated hydrocarbons tend to light off at 250-290 degrees C. The apparent activation energy was found to exhibit a linear correlation with the C-H bond dissociation energy, indicating that the C-H activation is still the rate-limiting step. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.