Superior single-atom Pt/TiO2 mesoporous microspheres via microdrops-confined pyrolysis/deposition for low-temperature CO oxidation

This work demonstrate a polymer micelle-induced mesoporous single-atom Pt1/TiO2 microspheres with a mixed mother solution of triblock copolymer (Pluronic F127), H2PtCl6 and tetrabutyl titanate (TBT). The specific surface area and pore volume of mesoporous single-atom Pt1/TiO2 microspheres reach 179 m2/g and 0.39 cm3/g, respectively. The synthesis reaction is spatially confined in microdrops via aerosol spray. The obtained catalysts present superior activity for CO oxidation at low temperature. Typically, T100 (Temperature required to reach 100% conversion) of CO conversion (1.0% CO + 1.0% O2) is achieved at 120 °C with 0.5 at% Pt1/TiO2 catalysts, 50–60 °C lower than that with the same Pt loaded non-mesoporous catalysts from conventional photo-deposition and immersion-deposition of Pt on commercial TiO2 nanoparticles. Thus, this work paves a way to access efficient single-atom catalysts for CO oxidation. This work presents a polymer micelle-induced single-atom 0.5 at% Pt1/TiO2 mesoporous microspheres via microdrops-confined pyrolysis/deposition with a precursor solution of Pluronic F127, H2PtCl6, tetrabutyl titanate and concentrated HCl. The specific surface area and pore volume of mesoporous Pt1/TiO2 microspheres are 179 m2/g and 0.39 cm3/g, respectively. The obtained catalysts present superior activity for CO oxidation at low temperature. [Display omitted] •This work presents a superior mesoporous single-atom Pt1/TiO2 microspheres for low-temperature CO oxidation.•The specific surface area and pore volume of mesoporous Pt1/TiO2 microspheres are 179 m2/g and 0.39 cm3/g, respectively.•The mesoporous Pt1/TiO2 presents higher activity than Pt/TiO2 catalysts from photo-deposition and immersion-deposition.