Catalytic oxidation of benzene at low temperature over novel combination of metal oxide based catalysts: CuO, MnO2, NiO with Ce0.75Zr0.25O2 as support

Mesoporous Ce0.75Zr0.25O2 solid solution powders were successfully synthesized by a co-precipitation method. A combination of 10 wt% copper oxide, manganese oxide, and nickel oxide was added to the Ce0.75Zr0.25O2 support by impregnation method and calcined in the air with a flow rate of 2 ml s(-1) at 400 degrees C for 4 h. All catalysts were characterized using Hydrogen Temperature Programmed Reduction (H-2-TPR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) isotherm methods to find the interaction between metals, the crystallinity of the catalyst, surface area and pore volume of the catalyst, respectively. The 3.3% CuO-3.3% MnO2-3.3% NiO/Ce0.75Zr0.25O2 catalyst showed higher catalytic activity for benzene oxidation with benzene conversion of 90% at 250 degrees C and weight hourly space velocity (72,000 mL g(-1) h(-1)) when compared to one metal oxide only. This finding presents a high activity and low-cost catalysts for removing a very lean concentration of benzene containing in the industrial flue gas at low temperatures. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.