In situ growth of Co3O4 nano-dodecahedeons on In2O3 hexagonal prisms for toluene catalytic combustion

In this paper, in situ growth of Co₃O₄ nano-dodecahedra on In₂O₃ hexagonal prisms were synthesized via pyrolysis of ZIF-67/MIL-68. Interestingly, the amount of Co₃O₄ dodecahedra on In₂O₃ hexagonal prisms was regularly regulated and controlled. In detail, four Co₃O₄/In₂O₃ catalysts with various Co/In molar ratio were prepared, including Co₄In₁ (Co/In molar ratio was 4:1), Co₂In₁ (Co/In molar ratio was 2:1), Co₁In₁ (Co/In molar ratio was 1:1), Co_0.5In₁ (Co/In molar ratio was 0.5:1). The catalytic performance of Co₃O₄/In₂O₃ catalysts was systematically investigated for toluene combustion. It could be noted that the Co₂In₁ sample exhibited the superior catalytic performance, and the temperatures for 90% toluene conversion (T₉₀) was 182 °C. Furthermore, the toluene conversion of Co₂In₁ sample had no significant decrease at 178 °C for 15 h, indicating that it presented superior stability for toluene oxidation reaction. Through various characterizations, it was verified that the Co/In molar ratio of Co₃O₄/In₂O₃ catalyst could obviously alter the surface atomic ratio of Co³⁺/(Co³⁺ + Co²⁺), BET surface area, the number of surface adsorbed oxygen, the interaction between In₂O₃ and Co₃O₄ of CoInO_x catalysts and so on. The lots of surface adsorbed oxygen, strong interaction between In₂O₃ and Co₃O₄ would promote the catalytic oxidation of toluene. Especially, we discovered that the catalytic activity of Co₃O₄/In₂O₃ was obviously improved with the increase of Co³⁺/(Co³⁺ + Co²⁺) surface atomic ratio.