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Influence of Ce/Nb Molar Ratios on Oxygen-Rich CexNb1-xO4+δ Materials for Catalytic Combustion of VOCs in the Process of Polyether Polyol Synthesis

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Abstract

Catalytic combustion is an efficient and economical technique to deal with the air pollution of diluted volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this work, oxygen-rich CeO2-Nb2O5 mixed oxides (CexNb1-xO4+δ) with varied Ce/Nb molar ratios in the bulk synthesized by modified sol–gel method were investigated for complete catalytic combustion of VOCs as exemplified by monochlorobenzene and toluene. To reveal the structure–function relationship of these materials, comprehensive catalytic performance evaluation and characterizations were performed, which showed that the 4Ce1Nb catalyst (CeO2-Nb2O5 with Ce/Nb molar ratio of 4:1) displayed superb apparent catalytic activity. Complete oxidation could be accomplished below 300 °C, which was significantly lower than that of single-component CeO2 or Nb2O5, as well as some other types of V and Cr based mixed oxide catalysts. Moreover, the apparent catalytic activity of 4Ce1Nb could be maintained for at least 100 h at 280 °C with high selectivity to the formation of HCl and CO2. The improved catalytic performance of 4Ce1Nb could be ascribed to the formation of oxygen-rich CexNb1-xO4+δ mixed oxides with high dispersion of Ce and Nb species into each other, the strong interaction of Ce–O-Nb, an abundance of active oxygen species, high specific surface area and mesoporous structure.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports for this research paper provided by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. LQ19B030004 and No. LGC20B010001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 21906106 and No. 12075154), Postdoctoral Scientific Research Program of Zhejiang Hengfeng New Materials Co., LTD and Zhejiang University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, College of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang University, 38 Zheda Road, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Peng Yang & Pengju Pan

  2. Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Alternative Technologies for Fine Chemicals Process, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, 312000, China

    Peng Yang, Yinying Jin, Xiuwen Zhang & Chenze Qi

  3. Zhejiang Hengfeng New Materials Co., LTD, Shaoxing, 312000, China

    Peng Yang, Juan Shi, Jiang Tang, Hong Luo & Bofang Shan

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  1. Peng Yang
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Yang, P., Jin, Y., Zhang, X. et al. Influence of Ce/Nb Molar Ratios on Oxygen-Rich CexNb1-xO4+δ Materials for Catalytic Combustion of VOCs in the Process of Polyether Polyol Synthesis. Catal Lett 152, 523–537 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-021-03652-2

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