Ultra-Low-Temperature CO Oxidation Activity of Octahedral Site Cobalt Species in Co3O4 Based Catalysts: Unravelling the Origin of the Unique Catalytic Property

Abstract

Co3O4 with spinel structure shows CO oxidation activity at very low temperature under dry conditions. This study aims at finding the origin of the unique catalytic activity of Co species in Co3O4 based oxides. Although, octahedral site Co3+ species have been reported to be active in Co3O4 based catalysts, there is no solid explanation as to why Co is so special as compared with other metals like Fe having similar redox states. In this study, mainly, three model spinel catalysts including MnCo2O4, MnFe2O4, and CoCr2O4 have been chosen. A detailed analysis of bulk and crystal surface structure, surface properties of the catalysts, and redox properties of the active metals has been performed to understand the unusual catalytic activity. Low-temperature CO oxidation activity decreases in the following order: MnCo2O4 ≫ MnFe2O4 > CoCr2O4. It indicates that the Co2+ species in a tetrahedral site (in CoCr2O4) remains inactive for low-temperature catalytic activity, while Co3+ in an octahedral site (in MnCo2O4) is...