Microwave-assisted integration of transition metal oxide nanocoatings on manganese oxide nanoarray monoliths for low temperature CO oxidation

Abstract Manganese oxide (OMS-2), a promising exhaust treatment catalyst, has been successfully integrated onto the channel wall surfaces of cordierite honeycombs in the form of a nanoarray forest. To further improve their catalytic carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation activity, a series of different metal oxide nanocoatings were uniformly grown on the surface of OMS-2 nanoarrays by utilizing a facile and fast microwave-assisted synthesis method. The manganese-cobalt oxide core-shell nanoarray based monolithic catalysts exhibit the highest catalytic performance with a 100% CO conversion at 150 °C, in a sharp contrast with 325 °C for the bare OMS-2 nanoarrays. Different growth mechanisms of the layered Co(OH) 2 and spinel Co 3 O 4 induced by different cobalt precursors are used to explain the morphology evolution of the manganese-cobalt oxide core-shell nanoarrays. The Co 3+ distributed on the surface of the nanoarrays acts as the active sites for CO oxidation. The small grain size, abundant surface-adsorbed oxygen, and interfacial effects between MnO 2 and Co 3 O 4 were found to favor the observed high catalytic activity. A thermal annealing study showed that high temperature induces the sintering of the nanoarray catalyst, which further affects the CO oxidation activity. This fast, cost-effective, and scalable method will provide a new route for synthesizing efficient core-shell nanoarray monolithic catalysts for low temperature catalysis.