Strong Structural Modification of Gd to Co₃O₄ for Catalyzing N₂O Decomposition under Simulated Real Tail Gases

In this paper, Gd-promoted Co₃O₄ catalysts were prepared via a facile coprecipitation method for low-temperature catalytic N₂O decomposition. Due to the addition of Gd, the crystallite size of Co₃O₄ in the Gd_0.06Co catalyst surprisingly decreased to 4.9 nm, which is much smaller than most additive-modified Co₃O₄ catalysts. This huge change in the catalyst's textural structure endows the Gd_0.06Co catalyst with a large specific surface area, plentiful active sites, and a weak Co-O bond. Hence, Gd_0.06Co exhibited superior activity for catalyzing 2000 ppmv N₂O decomposition, and the temperature for the complete catalytic elimination of N₂O was as low as 350 °C. Meanwhile, compared with pure Co₃O₄, E_a decreased from 77.4 to 46.8 kJ·mol^-1 and TOF of the reaction increased from 1.16 × 10^-3 s^-1 to 5.13 × 10^-3 s^-1 at 300 °C. Moreover, Gd_0.06Co displayed a quite stable catalytic performance in the presence of 100 ppmv NO, 5 vol % O₂, and 2 vol % H₂O.