Construction of Cu-Ce interface for boosting toluene oxidation: Study of Cu-Ce interaction and intermediates identified by in situ DRIFTS

Abstract A facile hydrothermal method was applied to gain stably and highly efficient CuO-CeO2 (denoted as Cu1Ce2) catalyst for toluene oxidation. The changes of surface and inter properties on Cu1Ce2 were investigated comparing with pure CeO2 and pure CuO. The formation of Cu-Ce interface promotes the electron transfer between Cu and Ce through Cu2+ + Ce3+ ↔ Cu+ + Ce4+ and leads to high redox properties and mobility of oxygen species. Thus, the Cu1Ce2 catalyst makes up the shortcoming of CeO2 and CuO and achieved high catalytic performance with T50 = 234 °C and T99 = 250 °C (the temperature at which 50% and 90% C7H8 conversion is obtained, respectively) for toluene oxidation. Different reaction steps and intermediates for toluene oxidation over Cu1Ce2, CeO2 and CuO were detected by in situ DRIFTS, the fast benzyl species conversion and preferential transformation of benzoates into carbonates through C=C breaking over Cu1Ce2 should accelerate the reaction.