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

Bovine serum albumin (BSA)-templated CeO 2 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-CeO 2 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-CeO 2 remained stable for 140 h of on-stream reaction. Besides, density functional theory calculation demonstrated how the porous structure of CeO 2 influenced the oxygen vacancy generation, and the synergetic effects of Au NPs and CeO 2 support facilitated the activation of benzene which was adsorbed on Au NPs prior to benzene oxidation. The catalysis of benzene oxidation over Au/CeO 2 catalyst follows the dual-site mechanism. BAS-templated CeO 2 support possessed hierarchical structure, abundant adsorbed oxygen species and synergic interaction with Au that determined the performance of Au/BSA-CeO 2 .