Bovine serum albumin templated porous CeO2 to support Au catalyst for benzene oxidation

Abstract

Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-templated CeO2 was prepared by citrate sol-gel method and used as a support to synthesize Au catalyst for benzene oxidation. It was found that the Au/BSA-CeO2 with 3.2 nm Au nanoparticles (NPs) gave rise to superior catalytic performance for benzene oxidation in which the temperature for 90 % benzene conversion was only 210 °C. In addition, the catalytic activity of Au/BSA-CeO2 remained stable for 140 h of on-stream reaction. Besides, density functional theory calculation demonstrated how the porous structure of CeO2 influenced the oxygen vacancy generation, and the synergetic effects of Au NPs and CeO2 support facilitated the activation of benzene which was adsorbed on Au NPs prior to benzene oxidation. The catalysis of benzene oxidation over Au/CeO2 catalyst follows the dual-site mechanism. BAS-templated CeO2 support possessed hierarchical structure, abundant adsorbed oxygen species and synergic interaction with Au that determined the performance of Au/BSA-CeO2.