Morphology-activity correlation of electrospun CeO₂ for toluene catalytic combustion

Herein, CeO₂ catalysts with nanotube, nanobelt, and wire-in-nanotube morphologies were successfully fabricated by a facile single spinneret electrospinning technique. And catalytic activity of these electrospun CeO₂ nanomaterials were evaluated by toluene catalytic combustion reaction. Among the three morphologies of CeO₂ catalysts, CeO₂ nanobelt (CeO₂-NB) presented the best toluene catalytic combustion performance (T_90% = 230 °C) at WHSV = 60,000 mL g^-1 h^-1, also exhibited the lowest activation energy (E_a = 80.2 kJ/mol). Based on the characterization by TEM, XRD, BET, SEM, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, H₂-TPR, and O₂-TPD results, the high catalytic activity of CeO₂-NB catalyst was attributed to its porous nanobelt morphology with larger specific surface area and the abundance of surface oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, the CeO₂-NB catalysts presented an excellent durability by longtime on-stream test (as well as presence of 5% vol. water vapor), suggesting its great potential for practical air pollution control application.