Facile Fabrication of Macroscopic Self-Standing Ni or Co-doped MnO2 Architectures as Catalysts for Propane Oxidation

The fabrication of macroscopic self-standing architectures plays a key role in the practical applications of nanomaterials. A facile strategy to assemble MnO2 nanowires into macroscopic self-standing architectures via hydrothermal reaction followed by ambient pressure drying was developed. The obtained sample was robust and showed excellent mechanical strength with a Young's modulus of 127 MPa, which had the possibility for practical applications. In order to promote the catalytic activity for propane oxidation, Ni or Co doping into MnO2 was studied. The results showed that the obtained macroscopic self-standing Ni-MnO2 and Co-MnO2 architectures exhibited enhanced catalytic activities for propane oxidation. Specifically, the conversions of propane over Co-MnO2 and Ni-MnO2 samples at 400 degrees C were 27.3% and 25.7% higher than that over pristine MnO2 sample.