Synthesis of CuO-Loaded Ceria Hollow Spheres for Catalytic CO Oxidation

Copper-ceria has been widely investigated as an active heterogeneous catalyst for CO oxidation reaction. Herein we report a reliable synthesis of CuO loaded ceria hollow spheres (CHS-CuO) which show an outstanding performance of 6.1712 mu mol(CO).g(cat)(-1).s(-1) CO consumption rate at 120 degrees C over other reported ceria-based catalysts for the CO oxidation reaction. The performance is superior to CuO loaded ceria nanoparticles (CNP-CuO) and ceria hollow spheres (CHS), due to hollow structure, large surface area, more adsorptive oxygen and subsequent lower activation energy. TEM images reveal CuO nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on the surface of ceria hollow spheres. XPS investigation shows that Cu2+ is the dominant copper species in CHS-CuO. The synthesis reliability is demonstrated with the case of Ag loaded CHS fabrication. The reported strategy enables the fabrication of similar bimetal hollow spheres, holding good promise for various heterogeneous catalysis.