Template and interfacial reaction engaged synthesis of CeMnO hollow nanospheres and their performance for toluene oxidation.

A series of well-dispersed CeMnO hollow nanospheres with uniform diameter and thickness were synthesized by a novel approach combining the template method and interfacial reaction. A SiO template was used as a hard template for preparation of SiO@CeO nanospheres by solvothermal reaction. SiO@CeMnO could be formed after KMnO was reacted with SiO@CeO by interfacial reaction between MnO and Ce. Among all the prepared catalysts, CeMnO -3 with a moderate content of Mn (15 wt%) exhibited the lowest temperature for complete combustion of toluene (280 °C). Moreover, it showed high stability for 36 h with toluene conversion above 97.7% and good water tolerance with 5 vol% HO. With characterization, we found that the reaction between Ce and Mn in the Ce-Mn binary oxides gave rise to increased Ce and oxygen vacancies, which led to the formation of enhanced reducibility and more surface-absorbed oxygens (O , O and O), and improved the catalytic performance further.