Morphology-activity correlation of electrospun CeO2 for toluene catalytic combustion

Herein, CeO 2 catalysts with nanotube , nanobelt, and wire-in-nanotube morphologies were successfully fabricated by a facile single spinneret electrospinning technique. And catalytic activity of these electrospun CeO 2 nanomaterials were evaluated by toluene catalytic combustion reaction. Among the three morphologies of CeO 2 catalysts, CeO 2 nanobelt (CeO 2 -NB) presented the best toluene catalytic combustion performance (T 90%  = 230 °C) at WHSV = 60,000 mL g −1 h −1 , also exhibited the lowest activation energy (E a  = 80.2 kJ/mol). Based on the characterization by TEM , XRD, BET, SEM, XPS, Raman spectroscopy , H 2 -TPR, and O 2 -TPD results, the high catalytic activity of CeO 2 -NB catalyst was attributed to its porous nanobelt morphology with larger specific surface area and the abundance of surface oxygen vacancies. Furthermore, the CeO 2 -NB catalysts presented an excellent durability by longtime on-stream test (as well as presence of 5% vol. water vapor), suggesting its great potential for practical air pollution control application.