Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped porous carbon anchored CeO2 quantum dots as an efficient catalyst for formaldehyde oxidation

Catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde with non-noble metal catalysts is desirable yet still challenging. In this work, we describe a hard template method in combination with an in situ chelating strategy to construct a novel three-dimensionally structured CeO2-based composite which contains CeO2 quantum dots of 1.5–2.5 nm size anchored on nitrogen doped hierarchical porous carbon with both macropores and mesopores. When used as an oxidation catalyst, complete oxidation of formaldehyde could be achieved at a temperature 130 °C lower than that of bulk nano-CeO2 catalyst. The significantly improved catalytic activity could be attributed to the higher amount of oxygen vacancies and enhanced redox properties of CeO2 quantum dots as well as the three-dimensional porous texture.