Metal-Support Interactions in CeO2- and SiO2-Supported Cobalt Catalysts: Effect of Support Morphology, Reducibility, and Interfacial Configuration.

With the increasing demand for highly efficient and durable catalysts, researchers have been doing extensive research to engineer the shape, size, and even phase (e.g., hcp or fcc Co) of individual catalyst nanoparticles, as well as the interface structure between the catalyst and support. In this work, cobalt oxides were deposited on ceria with rod-like morphology (CeO2NR) and cube-like morphology (CeO2NC) and silica with sphere-like morphology (SiO2NS) via a precipitation-deposition method to investigate the effects of support morphology, surface defects, support reducibility, and the metal-support interactions on redox and catalytic properties. XRD, Raman, XPS, BET, H2-TPR, O2-TPD, CO-TPD, TEM, and TPR/TPO cycling measurements have been mainly employed for catalysts characterization. Compared with CeO2NC and SiO2NS supports, as well as CeO2NC- and SiO2NS-supported cobalt catalysts, CeO2NR counterparts exhibited enhanced reducibility and CO oxidation performance at a lower temperature. Both the apparent activation energy and CO conversion demonstrated the following catalytic activity order: 10 wt % CoO x/CeO2NR > 10 wt % CoO x/CeO2NC > 10 wt % CoO x/SiO2NS. These results showed a strong support-dependent reducibility, CO oxidation, and redox cycling activity/stability of the as-prepared catalysts. Moreover, the significantly enhanced catalytic CO oxidation of the 10 wt % CoO x/CeO2NR catalyst indicated the vital role of CeO2NR support with rich surface oxygen vacancies, superior oxygen storage capacity and mobility, and excellent adsorption/desorption behavior of CO and O2 species.