Highly improved acetone oxidation performance over mesostructured CuxCe1-xO2 hollow nanospheres

Hierarchical bimetal oxide solid solutions in hollow-interior nanospheres with mesoporous shells have versatile applications in environmental protection, but their synthesis still encounters great challenges. In this work, mesostructured CuxCe1-xO2 hollow nanospheres with porous shells and controllable Cu/Ce molar ratios were newly fabricated by a facile solvothermal strategy for the first time to catalyze acetone oxidation. The experimental results revealed that Cu0.015Ce0.985O2 showed the optimal catalytic acetone oxidation performance, accomplishing 100% acetone conversion and 100% CO2 selectivity at 210 degrees C under reaction conditions of 1000 ppm acetone, 20% O-2/N-2 and WHSV = 90 000 mL g(cat)(-1) h(-1). The optimal catalytic acetone oxidation performance of Cu0.015Ce0.985O2 can be mainly credited to the integrated factors of the unique architecture of hollow-interior nanospheres with mesoporous shells, increased numbers of defective sites and active oxygen species, and enhanced redox capacities. Impressively, Cu0.015Ce0.985O2 also demonstrated strong water tolerance and good long-term stability owing to its highly stable crystal phase and robust morphological structure, showing great potential in cleaning volatile organic compounds for environmental protection.