Facile fabrication of Ce-decorated composition-tunable Ce@ZnCo2O4 core–shell microspheres for enhanced catalytic propane combustion

Abstract

The design of heterogeneous catalysts of high efficiency for complete oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is a challenge. In the present study, propane is adopted as a VOC representative, and core–shell structured ZnCo₂O₄@CeO₂ catalysts with Ce decoration were synthesized and tested for propane combustion. Through SEM, STEM, and EDX analyses, the structure of the ZnCo₂O₄@CeO₂ catalysts was characterized. The results of activity evaluation demonstrate that the presence of Ce can significantly promote catalytic performance, and the most suitable Ce content has been verified. Furthermore, the optimized ZnCo₂O₄@CeO₂ catalyst exhibits excellent thermal stability and strong resistance toward water. The superior catalytic performance over the optimized ZnCo₂O₄@CeO₂ catalyst is attributed to the high concentration of surface lattice oxygen (O²⁻) and the presence of strong interactions between Ce and Co.