Highly efficient Au/Fe 2 O 3 for CO oxidation: The vital role of spongy Fe 2 O 3 toward high catalytic activity and stability

Supported gold catalysts have drawn great attention for many decades due to their outstanding performance in remedying the environment from carbon monoxide (CO) pollution. In this study, due to the large surface area of spongy Fe 2 O 3, fabricated by salt-assisted ultrasonic spray pyrolysis, a considerable amount of Au was loaded on spongy Fe 2 O 3 compared to low-surface-area non-spongy Fe 2 O 3. It is seen that the spongy Fe 2 O 3 catalyst loaded with Au has an interface that can be extremely active for CO desorption and O 2 activation. That means it has high catalytic activity in CO oxidation than non-spongy and low surface area Fe 2 O 3 loaded with Au. Also, the incorporation of Au in low alkaline condition further enhances the interaction between Au and Fe 2 O 3, providing more active sites. This made the catalyst to have better activity, good stability over 60 hrs, and there was no carbonate on its surface. It had full conversion at 30 °C on 120 L g -1 h −1 with high TOF (2.2 s −1 ).