Chapter 7 - Recent Applications of Nanometal Oxide Catalysts in Oxidation Reactions

Abstract

Multifunctionality and versatile catalytic behavior of metal oxides are strongly enhanced by decreasing their particle or crystalline domain size to the nanoscale, providing them new and improved catalytic performances. The focus in early studies was mainly on the effect of size, but it has recently shifted and broadened to the effect of the oxide morphology at this scale. Such a control on size and morphology strongly depends on the precise method followed to prepare these materials. After concisely reviewing the methods used to prepare nanosized oxides with different morphologies, we review recent literature on the application of nanostructured oxide catalysts in several oxidation reactions (CO oxidation, oxidative dehydrogenation, selective oxidation, etc.), with emphasis on the study of the effect of the morphology at the nanoscale, and grouped according to the nature of the main component of the catalyst. From the current knowledge on nanometal oxide catalysts here summarized, the future lines of research in this field are outlined.