Boosting toluene deep oxidation by tuning metal-support interaction in MOF-derived Pd@ZrO2 catalysts: The role of interfacial interaction between Pd and ZrO2

The regulation of metal-support interaction is one of the productive strategies to enhance volatile organic compounds (VOCs) deep degradation. Herein, Pd@ZrO2 catalysts were synthesized via using in-situ growth Zr-based metal organic framework (MOF) Pd@UiO-66 as the precursor to boost toluene deep degradation. Compared with Pd@ZrO2-Zr(OH)4 synthesized by using Zr(OH)4 as the precursor, MOF-derived Pd@ZrO2 catalysts with different calcination time exhibited more superior catalytic performance, water-resistance and stability. Characterizations results indicated the occurrence of interfacial interaction in MOF-derived Pd@ZrO2 induced the better reducibility at low-temperature and the generation of oxygen vacancies, enhanced Oads species content, weakened Zr-O bond strength, improved the mobility of Olat species, which caused its better toluene degradation performance. Simultaneously, in-situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spec-troscopy results clarified that the interfacial interaction heightened the adsorption and activation ability for gaseous oxygen to form reactive oxygen species and replenish consumed Olat species, promoted toluene ring -opening reaction, reduced benzoate acid species cumulation, expedited the fast deeply degradation of toluene to CO2 and H2O. This work may provide a new perspective on MOF-derived catalysts with better performance for VOCs degradation deeply by tuning interfacial interaction.