Design of Co3O4@SiO2 Nanorattles for Catalytic Toluene Combustion Based on Bottom-Up Strategy Involving Spherical Poly(styrene-co-acrylic Acid) Template

Bearing in mind the need to develop optimal transition metal oxide-based catalysts for combustion of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), yolk-shell materials were proposed. The constructed composites contained catalytically active Co3O4 nanoparticles, protected against aggregation and highly dispersed a shell made porous SiO2, forming specific type nanoreactor. bottom-up synthesis started with obtaining spherical poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) copolymer (PS30) cores, which then covered SiO2 layer. phase was deposited by impregnation using PS30@SiO2 composite as well hollow spheres removed core. Structure (XRD), morphology (SEM), chemical composition (XRF), state (UV-Vis-DR XPS) reducibility (H2-TPR) obtained studied. It proven that introduction nanoparticles into empty resulted their loose distribution, facilitated access reagents sites and, on other hand, promoted involvement lattice oxygen catalytic process. As result, this way showed very high activity toluene, significantly exceeded achieved over standard silica gel supported catalyst.