Mesoporous Co3O4 for low temperature CO oxidation: effect of calcination temperatures on their catalytic performance

Mesoporous Co3O4 particles are prepared by using mesoporous silica KIT-6 (with double gyroid Ia-3d symmetry) as a hard-template and Co(No3)2 x 6H2O as an inorganic precursor. In the former section, we investigate the effect of the calcination temperatures at which the Co salts are converted into Co3O4 inside the mesopores on the textural parameters of the products. The results of N2 adsorption-desorption analysis indicates that the calcination temperatures do not obviously affect the textural parameters such as the surface areas and pore volumes. However, when the calcination temperature reaches 800 degrees C, the mesostructural ordering is dramatically decreased, resulting in the reduction of the surface areas and pore volumes. After 800 degrees C calcination, the formation of large Co3O4 grains is partially confirmed on the particle surface by SEM observation. The grain size is much larger than the mesopore size of the original KIT-6, meaning the crystal growth is continuously occurred by breaking the rigid silica frameworks. In the latter section, we discuss the effect of the calcination temperatures and textural parameters on the catalytic activity for CO oxidation by both steady state and kinetic measurements. All mesoporous Co3O4 particles show a high catalytic activity, for example, -72 degrees C for sample calcined at 450 degrees C. Only 10 degrees C difference in T50 (the temperature of 50% conversion of CO) is found between the samples with the highest and lowest catalytic activity. The values of activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A) per unit area are almost the same between two samples calcined at 450 degrees C and 800 degrees C. It is demonstrated that calcination process can not alter the essential catalytic property of mesoporous Co3O4 particles.