Compositing of Co3O4 with boron nitride to promote the catalytic performance for methane oxidation

Engineering a suitable catalyst support holds great importance to ensure a high catalytic performance in heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, an advanced boron nitride nanosheet (BNNS) supported Co3O4 composite (Co3O4/BNNS) was tailor-orchestrated to serve as an active and stable catalyst for methane oxidation. BNNS helps dispersion and binding small nano Co3O4 catalyst with augmented defective structures e.g., oxygen vacancies, lattice distortion etc. This facilitates the creation of more active oxygen species on Co3O4. Meanwhile, an interfacial electronic interaction was built to maintain Co3O4 in an electron-rich state. An excellent methane oxidation performance was guaranteed for Co3O4/BNNS with methane conversion rate of 58.3 mol·gCo3O4-1·h−1, 1.9 times that of Co3O4 catalyst at reaction temperature of 366 °C and weight hourly space velocity of 40,000 mL·g−1·h−1. Moreover, a strong metal and support interaction (SMSI) was in-situ formed, resulting a BOx over-layer confined Co3O4, which promises a robust hydrothermal stability for Co3O4/BNNS catalyst. This work exemplifies the pivotal role of BNNS as an excellent support to enhance the methane oxidation performance of Co3O4 catalyst.