Mechanochemical Synthesis of Pt Nanoclusters Supported Cordierite for Enhanced Catalytic Oxidation of Toluene

Abstract

Developing a low cost and high efficiency synthetic pathway is essential for the large-scale application of supported noble metal catalysts in many important environmental catalytic reactions, especially for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) catalytic oxidation. In this study, we report a facile chemical wet ball-milling method to control the metal-support interactions and platinum (Pt) nanoclusters (1.12 ± 0.23 nm) supported cordierite honeycomb ceramic (CHC) catalysts with enhanced toluene oxidation performance is obtained. The optimized Pt/CHC catalyst with Pt loading as low as 1.0 wt.% could convert 90% toluene (1000 ppm) to CO 2 at about 160 °C under a space velocity of 40000 mL g −1 h −1 . The catalyst also exhibits a low apparent activation energy of 44.1 kJ mol -1 , high stability for more than 60 h and moisture resistance properties under reaction condition. It is concluded that the high adsorbed oxygen species concentration, better low-temperature reducibility, and synergistic effect between Pt nanoclusters and CHC support is responsible for enhanced catalytic performance. Furthermore, the present wet ball-milling synthetic strategy paves a new avenue for mass production of highly efficient supported noble metal catalysts for environmental applications.