Co-assembly of microfibrous-structured Ag@SiO2-Co3O4/Al-fiber catalysts assisted with water-soluble silane coupling agent for catalytic combustion of trace ethylene

Microfibrous structured [email protected]2-Co3O4/Al-fiber catalyst, used for catalytic combustion of trace ethylene, is tailored with water-soluble silane coupling agent that has functionally specified multi-groups as bidirectional bridging reactant. Hydrothermally synthesized Co(OH)2/Al-fiber nanoarrays can be readily functionalized by amine groups via the silanisation reaction to form Co-O-Si bonds, followed by the assembly of Ag nanoparticles onto this microfibrous-structured substrates by coordination interaction. The as-prepared [email protected]2-Co3O4/Al-fiber catalyst uses very low Ag loading of only 0.2 wt% but exhibits high activity/stability at high-throughput operation. Ethylene conversion higher than 99 % was achieved at 200 °C under dry atmosphere, which shows no signs of deactivation with C2H4 conversion retained at ~94 % within 120 h running. Experimental and theoretical studies unanimously revealed that the [email protected]2-Co3O4 core-shell structures with strong metal-support interaction favor to bind and dissociate intermediate species during C2H4 oxidation, contributing to high activity of C2H4 oxidation.