Remarkable Activity of Nanoarchitectonics Mesoporous CuO/CeO2–TiO2 Prepared by Nanocasting and Deposition Precipitation Techniques
In this work, a ceria (CeO2) support was modified with titania (TiO2) by nanocasting using MCM-48 as a hard template and then loading Cu (as the nitrate salt) at different levels (3–9% by weight) by deposition-precipitation followed by calcination. The addition of TiO2 in MSP CeO2 revealed that the MSP CeO2 was significantly improved the oxygen vacancies of the catalyst by increasing the Ce3+ content from 38 to 75% and stabilizing the Ce3+ species by bonding with the oxygen as Ce(4f)-O(2p)-Ti(3d). Moreover, the bonding of MSP CeO2 with TiO2 generated the oxygen defect vacancies (s–Ti3+), allowing Cu2+ to occupy and be reduced to Cu+ during calcination. The smaller CeO2 crystallite size (2.7 nm) of 9Cu/CeO2–TiO2 increased the mass-specific CO-Oxidation, showing the best catalytic activity due to its highest redox properties, as determined by H2-TPR and also showing resistant property to water and carbon dioxide. Indeed, water was adsorbed on the Ce3+ sites, generating OHads which reacted with CO to form –COOH, resulting in CO2.