Low-temperature deep oxidation of olefins and DME over cobalt ferrite

Abstract This work reports the facile synthesis of cobalt ferrite catalysts by pulsed spray evaporation chemical vapor deposition (PSE-CVD) for low-temperature oxidation of dimethyl ether and olefin exhaust emission. To better understand the structure–performance relationship, the prepared thin films were comprehensively characterized in terms of phases, surfaces and redox properties. A well-crystallized inverse spinel structure was revealed by both XRD and Raman analyses. Helium ion microscopy (HIM) images show that the obtained films have cauliflower structure with apparent open porosity. The catalytic performance of the as-prepared cobalt ferrite was evaluated with a fixed-bed quartz reactor–FTIR system. The results indicate that the cobalt ferrites were very active for the total oxidation of propene, n -butene and DME at low temperature and no CO was observed during the oxidation processes. The attractive performance of cobalt ferrite catalysts is attributed to a redox mechanism which involves the synergistic effect of the morphology, reducibility, and lattice oxygen mobility.