Fabrication of Cu-Doped CeO2 Catalysts with Different Dimension Pore Structures for CO Catalytic Oxidation

Transition metal oxides (TMOs) applied as catalysts whose catalytic activities are directly affected by their pores size and pores distributions. Herein, two-dimensional Cu-doped CeO2 (2D@Cu–CeO2) and three-dimensional Cu-doped CeO2 (3D@Cu–CeO2) were prepared by adopting the mesoporous silica SBA-15 and KIT-6 as templates, respectively. Nanometer Cu-doped CeO2 (nano@Cu–CeO2) was synthesized by the method of precipitation. All catalysts were evaluated for the catalytic oxidation of CO, and the 3D@Cu–CeO2 catalyst exhibited the highest catalytic activity (complete conversion temperature T100 = 50 °C), which can be ascribed to the three-dimensional porous channel structure, larger specific surface area and abundant active surface oxygen species. In addition, complete conversion of CO had remained the same after 3D@Cu–CeO2 was observed for 12 h, indicating it has the best catalytic stability for CO.