Three-dimensional arrangements of perovskite-type oxide nano-fiber webs for effective soot oxidation

Perovskite-type oxides have been widely applied in heterogeneous catalytic reactions, such as soot oxidation. However, a poor contact point between the catalyst and solid reactant (soot) often limits the catalytic performance. Here, we report La_{1 - x}Sr_xCo_0.2Fe_0.8O_{3 - δ} perovskite oxide catalysts with a unique three-dimensional (3D) fiber web structure that increases the high-contact area by trapping soot in the unique pore structure for effective catalytic activity. This feature was carefully analyzed using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography to investigate the location of the soot on the web. The structure of the web, with a thickness of approximately 55 μm, indicated that the soot particles were caught by the 3D pores between the fibers. The relationship between the Sr amount and activate oxygen was also characterized by means of XPS. The results show that the Sr amount of 0.4 produced the highest amount of active oxygen species (O^-) that are essential for soot oxidation reaction. The developed catalyst exhibited a good catalytic performance due to the optimized perovskite chemical structure and the greatly increased number of the contact points owing to the 3D inter-fiber spaces. Hence, our proposed approach is reasonable for application to real soot combustion processes and can also be easily extended to numerous other catalytic processes to enhance the catalytic activity.