Chitosan -NH derived efficient CoO catalyst for styrene catalytic oxidation: Simultaneously regulating particle size and Co valence.

In this study, a CoO catalyst is synthesised using the chitosan-assisted sol-gel method, which simultaneously regulates the grain size, Co valence and surface acidity of the catalyst through a chitosan functional group. The complexation of the free -NH complex inhibits particle agglomeration; thus, the average particle size of the catalyst decreases from 82 to 31 nm. Concurrently, Raman spectroscopy, hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy experiments demonstrate that doping with chitosan N sources effectively modulates Co to promote the formation of oxygen vacancies.