Engineering order mesoporous CeCoOx catalyst via in-situ confined encapsulation strategy for VOCs catalytic combustion

• A new method for preparing ordered mesoporous CeCoO x by in-situ encapsulation is presented. • The confinement of mesoporous improves the stability of Co based catalysts derived from Co-MOF. • The superior activity of CeCoO x is related to the anchoring of Co-MOFs in ordered mesoporous CeO 2 . In this paper, a novel vacuum in-situ confined encapsulation strategy was proposed, in which Co-MOFs were embedded and anchored into ordered mesoporous CeO 2 structure to obtain a precursor of Co-MOF@CeO 2 composites. Accordingly, the Co-MOF@CeO 2 precursor was transformed into ordered mesoporous CeCoO x oxides for catalytic combustion of toluene by precisely controlling their calcination temperature without destroying the ordered mesoporous structure. It is confirmed that order meso‑CeCoO x -300 calcined at 300 °C had superior activity and good thermal stability for toluene catalytic oxidation, which were chiefly due to the content of Co 3+ , the effective anchoring of Co-MOFs in ordered mesoporous CeO 2 , more lattice oxygen, and weak acid sites. More importantly, we discovered that the active Co species would migrate and aggregate with the increase of calcination temperature, and affected greatly the interaction between Ce and Co. Besides, the increase of calcination temperature also resulted in an obvious decrease of the specific surface area and Co 3+ species (TOFs) of the catalysts, which affected the catalytic combustion activity of toluene. A novel vacuum in-situ confinement encapsulation strategy was proposed, in which Co-MOFs was embedded and anchored into ordered mesoporous CeO 2 structure to obtain ordered mesoporous CeCoO x bimetallic oxide for catalytic combustion of toluene. It is discovered that the order meso‑CeCoO x -300 calcined at 300 °C had superior activity and good thermal stability for toluene catalytic oxidation due to the effective anchoring of Co-MOFs in ordered mesoporous CeO 2 pores.