Cooperative Effect of the Ce–Co‐Ox for the Catalytic Oxidation of Toluene

Pure CeO2, Co3O4 and CeO2‐CoOx catalysts were successfully prepared by co‐precipitation method and investigated for toluene oxidation. The introduction of cobalt improved the porous texture and increased the specific surface area of catalysts. The cooperative effect of Co and Ce was characterized by several techniques. The characterization results indicated that CeO2‐CoOx showed the largest concentration of Ce3+, oxygen vacancy and surface adsorbed oxygen due to the generation of more structural defects, resulting in better redox properties. Hence, CeO2‐CoOx exhibited excellent catalytic activity and ideal CO2 selectivity than pure CeO2 and Co3O4. In this work, CeO2, Co3O4 and CeO2‐CoOx catalysts were synthesized and evaluated for the catalytic oxidation of toluene. The results indicated that the introduction of CoOx into CeO2 contributed to the generation of more Ce3+, Co2+, oxygen vacancies and Oads, which resulted from the strong interaction between cobalt and cerium oxides. Thus, the CeO2‐CoOx sample exhibited the better catalytic performance than that of pure CeO2 and Co3O4 catalysts.