Low platinum alloy catalyst PtCo3 obtaining high catalytic activity and stability with great water and CO2 resistance for catalytic oxidation of toluene

Abstract The PtCo3 nanoparticles (NPs of 2–5 nm) were synthesized by the organic phase reduction method and the PtCo3-C samples were obtained by physically loading the bimetallic NPs on the carbon black. The catalytic activity and stability of PtCo3-C for toluene oxidation under different reaction conditions were studied. The PtCo3-C can completely oxidize and decompose 1000 ppm toluene at 238 ℃ for at least 120 h, which has excellent low-temperature catalytic activity and thermal stability. In addition, PtCo3-C displays a great water and CO2 resistance when 3.5 to 20 vol% water vapor (at least 110 h) or 3.5 to 10 vol% CO2 (at least 60 h) is introduced into the reaction gas at 238 ℃. Moreover, the adsorption energy of toluene (−73.68 kJ mol−1) is much higher than that of water (−24.5 kJ mol−1) and CO2 (−37.56 kJ mol−1), which were calculated by the density functional theory (DFT). Furthermore, catalytic mechanism of the oxidation of toluene over the PtCo3-C catalyst was also proposed. This study presents a good catalyst candidate obtaining high catalytic activity and stability with great water and CO2 resistance for the removal of toluene.