Modeling Preparation Condition and Composition-Activity Relationship of Perovskite-Type LaxSr1-xFeyCo1-yO3 Nano Catalyst

In this paper, an artificial neural network (ANN) is first applied to perovskite catalyst design. A series of perovskite-type oxides with the LaxSr1-xFeyCo1-yO3 general formula were prepared with a sol gel autocombustion method under different preparation conditions. A three-layer perceptron neural network was used for modeling and optimization of the catalytic combustion of toluene. A high R-2 value was obtained for training and test sets of data: 0.99 and 0.976, respectively. Due to the presence of full active catalysts, there was no necessity to use an optimizer algorithm. The optimum catalysts were La0.9Sr0.1Fe0.5Co0.5O3 (T-c= 700 and 800 degrees C and [citric acid/nitrate] = 0.750), La0.9Sr0.1Fe0.82Co0.18O3 (T-c= 700 degrees C, [citric acid/nitrate] = 0.750), and La0.8Sr0.2Fe0.66Co0.34O3 (T-c = 650 degrees C, [citric acid/nitrate] = 0.525) exhibiting 100% conversion for toluene. More evaluation of the obtained model revealed the relative importance and criticality of preparation parameters of optimum catalysts. The structure, morphology, reducibility, and specific surface area of catalysts were investigated with XRD, SEM, TPR, and BET, respectively.