Highly ordered crystalline mesoporous metal oxides for hydrogen peroxide decomposition

Highly ordered mesoporous metal oxides (meso-MO (x) ) such as CeO2, Co3O4, Cr2O3, Mn2O3, NiO, RuO2, SnO2 and TiO2 were successfully synthesized using mesoporous silica KIT-6 as a hard template via the nano-replication method. The physicochemical properties of as-prepared meso-MO (x) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, N-2 adsorption-desorption and temperature programmed techniques. Their catalytic behavior toward H2O2 decomposition was investigated and compared with the corresponding bulk metal oxides (bulk-MO (x) ) synthesized by the conventional precipitation method. These meso-MO (x) materials exhibited much higher catalytic activities than their bulk counterparts. In particular, meso-Mn2O3 and meso-RuO2 showed high activities, while meso-SnO2 resulted in no activity toward H2O2 decomposition. The overall conversion of H2O2 followed a general order: Mn2O3 > RuO2 > Co3O4 > CeO2 > NiO > Cr2O3 > TiO2 > SnO2.