Investigation of flame spray synthesized La1-xSrxCoO3 perovskites with promotional catalytic performances on CO oxidation

Abstract

To enhance the activity of catalysts for CO removal, the perovskite-type catalysts La1-xSrxCoO3 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8) with different Sr2+ doping amount were synthesized by flame spray synthesis (FSS) method. The perovskite-type catalyst synthesized by FSS has a much larger specific surface area (SSA) than that prepared by other conventional methods. The SSA of catalyst increases with the increase of Sr2+ doping amount and the SSA of La0.2Sr0.8CoO3 reaches 31.65 m2/g. Compared with other conventional methods, FSS method significantly improves the activity of catalyst and makes it close to the performances of catalysts with surface modification. The substitution of La3+ by Sr2+ promotes the generation of secondary phase Co3O4 and SrCO3. The catalytic activity of La1-xSrxCoO3 increases with the addition of Sr2+, which results from the increasing active sites and oxygen vacancies. Interestingly, La0.4Sr0.6CoO3 performs the highest activity for CO oxidation and the CO conversion reaches 50% at 148.6 °C and 90% at 165.9 °C. The oxidation of CO over La1-xSrxCoO3 catalyst may follow a combination of MvK and L-H mechanisms according to the experimental results of H2-TPR. Moreover, the catalyst exhibits good catalytic activity in consecutive oxidation cycles. In consecutive oxidation experiments with La0.4Sr0.6CoO3, the CO conversion reaches 50% at 168.8 °C and 90% at 197.8 °C in the eighth oxidation cycle. These results prove that FSS method can further improve the activity of catalysts and is suitable for the preparation of efficient catalysts.