In-situ fabrication and catalytic performance of Co-Mn@CuO core-shell nanowires on copper meshes/foams

This work reports a facile calcination-soak approach for the large-scale growth of Co-Mn composite shell over the cores of copper mesh and foam resulting in Co-Mn[email protected] nanowires. In the synthesis of [email protected] core/shell structure, CuO nanowires were first formed on copper mesh through a facile calcination, followed by Co-Mn compounds (MnO2 and CoOOH or Co(OH)3) soaking to form a coat on the outer surface of CuO nanowires attributed to the redox reaction between MnO4− and Co2+, which were calcined in air to get the final Co-Mn oxide. The thickness of the Co-Mn oxide shell over CuO nanowire could be easily tuned by soaking duration. The prepared [email protected] nanowires were applied as monolithic catalysts in plasma-catalytic oxidation of toluene and decomposition of ozone. The catalytic performance was enhanced to ~88% at 1.0 A and ~95% at 1.5 A with the filling of [email protected] core/shell structure as monolith catalyst, which could be attributed to the synergistic effect of plasma and catalytic effect. Using [email protected], 95% ozone conversion was achieved at room temperature credited to the presence of mixed-valent manganese ions in the catalyst.