Colloidal Solution Combustion Synthesis of Crystalline Mesoporous CeO2 Catalyst with Tunable Porosity

Abstract

Mesoporous metal oxides with uniform porosity are of considerable interest. In this work, we demonstrate for the first time a scalable, economic, energy and time efficient method for the synthesis of a crystalline mesoporous CeO2 catalyst with adjustable porosity, by utilizing colloidal SiO2 as a template. The size and amount of colloidal particles can tune the porosity of the CeO2 nanostructure and alter the heat transfer and energy balance of combustion. The CeO2 prepared by colloidal solution combustion synthesis (CSCS) possesses uniform 22 nm pores and a 0.6 mL/g pore volume, which is among largest pore volume for CeO2 reported in literature. The obtained mesoporous CeO2 catalyst exhibited excellent activity for soot and carbon monoxide oxidation. In principle, the CSCS method can be applied to synthesize different high-porosity crystalline oxides. Results will also be shown for CSCS prepared mesoporous CuO.