A facile approach to improve the methane catalytic performance of LaCoO3 perovskite

Some series of LaCoO3 perovskite metal oxide catalysts were modified with different molar amounts of transition metal Co and Fe, namely LaCoO3-xCo and LaCoO3-yFe. They were applied to methane catalytic combustion, and the effects of Co and Fe doping on the defect structure mechanism of LaCoO3 crystal growth and on the performance of methane catalytic combustion were investigated, respectively. The results showed that hydrothermal addition of Co and Fe could both significantly improved the performance of LaCoO3 catalyst for methane catalytic combustion, with the best catalytic methane activity at x=2 and y=7, the T50 was 425 ℃ and 397 ℃, the T90 was 480 ℃ and 457 ℃, respectively. The performance of the hydrothermally modified catalysts were investigated by characterization techniques such as BET, XRD, SEM and XPS, and it turned out that the excellent activity was mainly due to the significantly enhanced oxygen migration rate and the altered LaCoO3 crystal growth mechanism constructing surface defects during the hydrothermal process. In conclusion, this study provides an efficient and simple method for the synthesis of methane combustion catalysts.