In situ confined encapsulation strategy for construction of Co3O4@SiO2 catalyst for the efficient elimination of toluene

In this study, a novel in situ confined encapsulation strategy for construction of Co3O4@SiO2 catalyst by the vacuum self-assembly method was developed. The ordered mesoporous silica with different pore diameters was treated as templates to prepare order mesoporous Co-MOFs@SiO2, and the Co-MOF were anchored and embedded in ordered mesoporous channels of mesoporous SiO2 by the vacuum in-situ self-assembly process. After calcination, two types order mesoporous Co3O4@SiO2 catalysts with different pore diameters (OMCo3O4@KIT-6 and OM-Co3O4@SBA-15) were obtained for catalytic combustion of toluene. It is discovered that the highly dispersed Co3O4 nanoparticles were limited in the pores of ordered mesoporous silica. The test results for the toluene oxidation reaction confirmed that OM-Co3O4@SBA-15 with 16 nm pore diameter has excellent toluene catalytic oxidation activity and good thermal stability, which are mainly attributed to the content and dispersion of Co3+ species, the effective anchoring of Co-MOF in the pores, more adsorbed oxygen species and strong acid sites.

Automated summary

A novel in situ confined encapsulation strategy was developed for constructing Co3O4@SiO2 catalysts through the vacuum self-assembly method. Two types of ordered mesoporous Co3O4@SiO2 catalysts with different pore diameters were obtained for catalytic combustion of toluene. The results showed that the OM-Co3O4@SBA-15 catalyst with a 16 nm pore diameter exhibited excellent toluene catalytic oxidation activity and good thermal stability.