Investigation of reaction mechanism and kinetic modelling for the toluene total oxidation in presence of CoAlCe catalyst

Abstract Hydrotalcite like compounds containing Co, Al and Ce are synthesized by co-precipitation method. The mixed oxides issued from calcination step, have been characterized and tested for the toluene total oxidation with various concentrations of toluene and oxygen. The toluene conversion curves have been modelled in this paper with eight models. The Mars Van Krevelen mechanism shows the best accordance with the experimental data. Moreover, the determination of the Co3O4-CeO2 interface as the active center has been performed with the experimental observations. The Co3O4 allows obtaining high catalytic activity, and the CeO2 permits increasing the reoxidation of the Co3O4 to perform a new catalytic cycle.