Catalytic VOCs elimination over copper and cerium oxide modified mesoporous SBA-15 silica

[EN] Copper and cerium oxide bi-component materials with different Cu/Ce ratio were prepared using ordered SBA-15 silica as a support and compared with their bulk analogs. The samples were characterized by nitrogen physisorption, XRD, UV-Vis, FTIR, XPS, Raman spectroscopy and TPR with hydrogen. Cyclohexanol conversion was used as a catalytic test to obtain more information for the surface properties of the supported materials. The catalytic properties of the samples were studied in VOCs oxidation using toluene and ethyl acetate as probe molecules. A strong effect of mesoporous silica support and samples composition on the formation of catalytic sites was established. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Financial support of Bulgarian Academy of Science and National Scientific Fond of Ministry of Education Projects DTK 02/64 and ДНTC/Киtай 01/8, financial support from DGICYT in Spain (Project CTQ-2009-14495) and bilateral project Bulgarian-Spain Inter-academic Exchange Agreement (Project 2009BG0002) are acknowledged.