Construction and catalytic mechanism of CeOx/TiO2 nanoisland catalysts for low-temperature chlorobenzene oxidation

Conventional Ce-based catalysts for chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC) elimination suffer from severe Ce sintering and chlorine poisoning, greatly limiting their practical application. To tackle these challenges, a distinctive electrostatic-induced sea‑island strategy is developed to construct highly dispersed CeO x nanoislands anchored on TiO 2 supports. The optimized 10%CeO x /TiO 2 catalyst achieves effective suppression of Ce agglomeration via spatial steric hindrance and remarkably strengthened metal-support interaction. Systematic characterizations reveal that this unique nanoisland structure enriches Ce 3+ species and oxygen vacancies, while simultaneously enhancing moderate acid sites. 10%CeO x /TiO 2 exhibits superior low‑temperature activity (T 50 = 240 °C, T 90 = 330 °C) and a low apparent activation energy of 120.72 kJ/mol under a high space velocity of 30,000 mL·g –1 ·h –1 . Moreover, the abundant oxygen vacancies kinetically accelerate the desorption of Cl⁻ species and effectively inhibit chlorine accumulation on active sites, endowing the catalyst with excellent long-term stability (retaining 99% of initial activity after 720 min at 340 °C) and superior resistance to chlorine poisoning. This work provides a novel structural design strategy for high‑performance Ce-based CVOCs catalysts by integrating anti-sintering and anti-chlorine functionalities.