Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are key pollutants that degrade air quality [
1–
5]. Styrene (C
8H
8) is a typical malodorous VOCs, which is widely used in rubber production, paint manufacturing, and the plastics fabrication industries [
6–
8]. Studies have looked into the deterioration of C
8H
8 vapor in air. Catalytic oxidation is widely recognized as one of the most promising and efficient methods for styrene degradation among conventional approaches [
9]. In practical industrial waste gas treatment environments, the water vapor content is uncontrollable, leading to competitive adsorption and blockage of the active sites on the catalyst. A key challenge lies in designing catalysts capable of simultaneously activating C–H bonds and cleaving the benzene ring in C
8H
8, while maintaining structural stability and water resistance under extreme conditions.
Developing high-performance catalysts relies on the accurate modulation of active sites and the refinement of reaction pathways. Extensive research has focused on constructing metal−support interfaces to achieve enhanced catalytic performance. Huang
et al. [
10] constructed a Pd–Si interface on ZSM-5 by regulating the electronic metal–support interaction (EMSI) between Pd and Si, improving formaldehyde degradation. Xiao
et al. [
11] discovered that the thermally driven interaction between Ni and adjacent Pt in Pt/N-CeO
2 catalysts leads to the formation of Pt–NiO interfaces, thereby enhancing toluene conversion. Juan
et al. [
12] synthesized a unique Pd–iC–CeO
2 interface through mechanical grinding, which promotes methane conversion. Such metal−support interfaces enable the transport of adsorbates or intermediates, a phenomenon known as spillover, such as hydrogen or oxygen species [
13–
15]. These interfaces not only facilitate the migration of reactive species, but also act as additional catalytic sites for O
2 activation, generating reactive oxygen species (
e.g., O
2-, O
2-, O) and accelerating catalytic activity [
16]. The spillover of oxygen species plays a crucial role in CO oxidation and VOCs degradation [
17]. Chen
et al. [
18] regulated rutile-phase TiO
2 through tin doping, which activated the low-temperature reverse oxygen spillover process in the Pt/TiO
2 catalyst and thereby enhanced its CO oxidation activity. Wen
et al. [
19] found that Pt sites can activate gaseous oxygen, and the oxygen spillover from Pt sites to the MoO
3 surface significantly promotes the catalytic combustion of active hydrocarbons.
The Pt–O–Ce interface plays a critical role in regulating the adsorption and activation of reactants and intermediates on catalyst surfaces. Notably, the stability and dispersion of Pt species are key for efficient Pt–O–Ce interfaces, and steam treatment effectively regulates metal dispersion in supported catalysts. Nie
et al. [
20] showed steam maintains Pt
2+ atomic dispersion in Pt/CeO
2, generates active surface lattice oxygen, and boosts low-temperature CO oxidation performance. Fan
et al. [
21] found steam induces Cu–OH formation and support hydroxyl enrichment, converting Cu nanoparticles to atomically dispersed Cu
2+. Pt demonstrates high activity for C–H bond cleavage [
22,
23], while CeO
2 exhibits exceptional oxygen storage-release capability [
24–
26]. Their synergy promotes rapid oxygen species migration and transformation at the interface, thereby accelerating VOCs oxidation [
27]. Oxygen vacancies further optimize the local electronic structure of the Pt–O–Ce interface by modulating electron cloud distributions, enhancing the adsorption and conversion of reaction intermediates [
28,
29]. Xu
et al. [
30] prepared a Pt ALs/CeO
2 catalyst with abundant edge Pt–O–Ce active sites
via a two-step calcination method, which involves epitaxial growth of small-sized atomic layer Pt on the CeO
2 surface. Wang
et al. [
31] prepared a high-loading and highly-dispersed Pt cluster catalyst of Pt
AC/CeO
2-O
v@GC, enriched with Pt–O–Ce structures
via a molten salt electrochemical method, which enhances the oxygen reduction reaction. Recent efforts focus on anchoring single Pt atoms or clusters on CeO
2 nanoislands to prevent aggregation and maximize interfacial activity. Li
et al. [
32] anchored Pt atoms on CeO
x nanoislands of supported on porous silica, ensuring atomic dispersion under high-temperature with oxidative and reductive conditions. Chen
et al. [
33] confined Pt nanoclusters on CeO
x nanoislands and studied how the interaction between Pt clusters and single-atom Pt species influenced catalytic performance. However, the study of utilizing Pt–O–Ce active interfaces to promote the oxygen spillover from nanosized CeO
2 remains insufficient. On Pt-CeO
2 supported catalysts, oxygen transfer across the interface is a nanoscale phenomenon. Spillover occurs only on nanostructured or particulate CeO
2 in direct contact with Pt, and not on bulk or ordered CeO
2 [
34–
36].
Herein, porous SiO2 derived from waste biomass rice husks was used to support uniformly dispersed CeO2 nanoparticles. Subsequently, Pt nanoparticles were deposited onto the CeO2/SiO2 support via ethylene glycol reflux reduction combined with steam redispersion strategy, aiming to investigate the influence of synergistic effects among highly dispersed CeO2, Pt nanoparticles, and SiO2 on the formed Pt−O−Ce active interfaces. TEM, EPR, Raman, UV–vis, in-situ XPS, O2-TPO, XANES, and in-situ DRIFTs reveal that the presence of CeO2 and highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles increases oxygen vacancy concentration. Meanwhile, oxygen spillover from CeO2 to Pt promotes the oxidation of C8H8. This work provides a pathway for designing catalysts with tailored active interfaces and provides insights into the preparation of highly stable catalysts.
The effect of the SiO2 support and steam treatment on catalyst morphology was observed by SEM analysis. As shown in Fig. S1a (Supporting information), CeO2/SiO2 exhibits a clean, smooth and compact surface, suggesting that CeO2 might penetrate into the porous structure of SiO2. The morphology of the Pt/CeO2/SiO2 remains smooth and dense after Pt loading, indicating minimal structural disruption. In the absence of SiO2 support, the particle size of Pt/CeO2 (Fig. S1b in Supporting information) is larger than that of Pt/CeO2/SiO2 (Fig. S1c in Supporting information), likely due to the confinement effect of the SiO2 porous framework, which promotes the formation of finely dispersed particles. After steam treatment, the morphology of Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O (Fig. S1d in Supporting information) becomes loosely packed. This structural change may associate with the redispersion of Pt nanoparticles.
To explore the specific forms of CeO
2 and Pt species, TEM images of the catalysts were collected. As shown
Fig. 1, the bright regions indicated by white arrows correspond to Pt nanoparticles. In Pt/CeO
2 (Fig. S2 in Supporting information), Pt nanoparticles exhibit aggregation with uneven distribution. In CeO
2/SiO
2 (Figs. S3a and b in Supporting information), CeO
2 nanoparticles are uniformly distributed on SiO
2 with an average particle size of 2 nm. After Pt loading, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 (
Figs. 1a–d) displays aggregated Pt nanoparticles with an average size of 8 nm. After steam treatment, Pt nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed and the aggregates largely disappear for Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O (
Figs. 1e–h). The average particle size decreases from 8 nm to 3 nm, which is attributed to the hydroxyl groups generated during steam treatment promoting the formation of mobile Pt–OH species, thereby facilitating the breakup and migration of Pt nanoparticles [
37–
39]. EDX elemental mapping analysis further confirms the presence and uniform distribution of Pt and CeO
2 species [
40], supporting the redispersion of Pt into small particles (Figs. S3c-d in Supporting information). CO pulse chemisorption measurements show Pt dispersions of 1.2%, 13.9%, and 17.8% for Pt/CeO
2, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O, respectively. This further verifies the improvement in dispersion. In addition, the actual Pt content in catalysts was tested by ICP-AES. As shown in Table S5 (Supporting information), the Pt contents in Pt/CeO
2, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O are 0.9%, 0.8%, and 0.8%, respectively.
XRD analysis demonstrated that the Pt peak at 39.7° characteristic of Pt particles disappears in steam-treated Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O compared with Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 (Fig. S4 in Supporting information), indicating enhanced Pt dispersion, consistent with the TEM results. UV–vis spectroscopy confirmed structural modifications in Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst after steam treatment. The enhanced absorption at 400–600 nm (Fig. S5a in Supporting information) evidences CeO
2 defect formation induced by highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles with reduced particle sizes [
41]. Moreover, the band gap narrowing from 3.08 eV to 3.00 eV (Fig. S5b in Supporting information) indicates increased Ce
3+ species and oxygen vacancies, resulting from the partial Ce 4f orbitals filling, thereby enhancing visible-light absorption [
42]. As shown in the EPR spectra (Fig. S6 in Supporting information), the peak at around
g = 2.003 can be readily assigned to the oxygen vacancy [
43,
44]. Compared with the Pt/CeO
2, CeO
2, and Pt/SiO
2 catalysts, the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 catalyst exhibits significantly higher peak intensities of oxygen vacancies and Ce
3+. As expected, the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst shows even stronger peaks of oxygen vacancies and Ce
3+ after steam treatment. These results indicate that the highly dispersed CeO
2 and Pt increase the oxygen vacancy concentration.
O
2-TPO analysis was employed to characterize the oxidation behavior and oxygen spillover over the catalysts. The experiment involved pre-reducing the catalyst in 10% H
2/Ar, followed by exposure to 3% O
2/He under programmed temperature ramping. By testing CeO
2/SiO
2 and Pt/SiO
2, the positions of the oxygen consumption peaks corresponding to the oxidation of Ce
3+ to Ce
4+ and that of Pt
0 to Pt
2+ are distinguished. As shown in
Fig. 1i, the peak at 331 ℃ in the CeO
2/SiO
2 catalyst represents the bulk re-oxidation of CeO
2 by gaseous O
2, which is an intrinsic property of the ceria support. By contrast, no obvious oxygen consumption peak was observed in Pt/SiO
2, as the oxidation of Pt
0 in this catalyst can only occur
via the direct activation of gaseous O
2 on the Pt nanoparticles themselves. By comparison, besides the oxygen consumption peak appearing around 330 ℃, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O also showed an oxygen consumption peak around 450 ℃. This indicates that the oxidation of Pt does not occur directly
via gaseous O
2, but mainly relies on the active oxygen species spilled over from the CeO
2 support [
45,
46]. Notably, the Pt/SiO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst exhibits a large oxygen consumption peak at 439 ℃, indicating a strong oxygen spillover effect. To further verify the occurrence of oxygen spillover, XPS was performed to analyze the valence state changes of Pt in Pt/SiO
2 and Pt/SiO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalysts after reduction under 10% H
2/Ar at 500 ℃ for 1 h or oxidation under 3% O
2/He at 450 ℃ for 30 min (
Fig. 1j). High-resolution Pt 4f XPS spectra show that Pt exists in both 0 and +2 oxidation states. For Pt/SiO
2, the Pt
0/(Pt
0 + Pt
2+) ratios in Pt/SiO
2-H
2 (after H
2 reduction) and Pt/SiO
2-H
2-O
2 (after O
2 oxidation) are 0.83 and 0.80, respectively, with a minor difference of 0.03. By contrast, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O exhibits Pt
0/(Pt
0 + Pt
2+) ratios of 0.89 (after H
2 reduction) and 0.82 (after O
2 oxidation), respectively, corresponding to a large difference of 0.07. This indicates that Pt in Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O underwent a higher degree of oxidation, suggesting the involvement of spillover oxygen from CeO
2 to Pt in addition to gaseous O
2. Moreover,
quasi in-situ XPS experiments were conducted to analyze the valence state changes of Pt in Pt/SiO
2, Pt/SiO
2/SiO
2, and Pt/SiO
2/SiO
2-H
2O after 10% H
2/Ar reduction and 3% O
2/He oxidation treatments at different temperatures (Fig. S7, Table S2 in Supporting information). Based on the Allometric1 plots presented in
Fig. 1k, for Pt/SiO
2, the Pt
0/(Pt
0 + Pt
2+) ratio showed only a minor change of 0.02 between H
2 reduction and O
2 oxidation, remaining almost unchanged across different oxidation temperatures. By contrast, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O, exhibited a ratio of 0.87 after reduction, decreasing to 0.85 after 350 ℃ oxidation and 0.77 after 450 ℃ oxidation, with a maximum difference achieving 0.1. For Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, the Pt
0/(Pt
0 + Pt
2+) ratio declines from 0.85 after reduction to 0.84 after oxidation at 350 ℃, and 0.80 after oxidation at 450 ℃, corresponding to a maximum change of 0.05, slightly lower than that of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O. This result further indicates that Pt in Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O undergoes a higher degree of oxidation, consistent with the previous analysis.
CV measurement was employed to evaluate the electron transfer capability of catalysts over various voltage ranges (
Fig. 2a), with electrochemical characterization conducted in a 0.25 mmol/L K
3Fe(CN)
6 solution [
47]. Using CeO
2/SiO
2 and Pt/SiO
2 as control samples, the redox peak potential ranges of Pt and Ce species were determined. The CeO
2/SiO
2 catalyst exhibits redox pairs at 0.75 V and 0.63 V, ascribed to the redox reactions of Ce species. The Pt/SiO
2 catalyst shows redox pairs at 0.32 V and 0.22 V, associated with the redox transitions of Pt species. Within the voltage range of 0–0.8 V, electrochemical measurements revealed distinct redox behaviors for Pt/CeO
2, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalysts. The Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst exhibited the highest activity with oxidation/reduction peak currents of 39/57 µA for Pt species and 15/1.5 µA for Ce species, followed by Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 (32/48 µA for Pt, 13/1 µA for Ce) and Pt/CeO
2 (29/45 µA for Pt, 12/2.5 µA for Ce). This indicates that greater numbers of Pt and Ce species participate in the redox reactions and more intense electron transfer occurring, thereby enhancing redox capabilities [
48].
As observed in XANES spectra, the white line peak intensities of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 are similar and fall between those of Pt foil and PtO
2. Moreover, its near-edge absorption energy is lower than that of PtO
2 (
Fig. 2b). This indicates that the valence state of Pt is
δ+ (0 <
δ < 4), a phenomenon attributable to the partially unoccupied 5d orbitals of Pt [
24,
39], and is consistent with the XPS analysis. The coordination environment of platinum was characterized using Fourier transform extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. As shown in
Fig. 2c and Figs. S8a and b (Supporting information), the reference PtO
2 shows a prominent peak at ~1.6 Å, attributed to the Pt–O coordination. Both Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalysts exhibit a peak at ~2.5 Å, corresponding to Pt–Pt coordination, similar to that of Pt foil. Compared to the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 catalyst, the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst exhibits a higher Pt–Pt bonding peak, suggesting a higher concentration of metallic Pt
0 in this catalyst (Table S3 in Supporting information). This observation is further supported by the wavelet transform analysis in Figs. S8c-f (Supporting information) [
49,
50].
Raman spectroscopy was conducted to clarify the atomic structure of catalysts. As evidenced by the Raman data in
Fig. 2d, the distinctive F
2g phonon mode (463 cm
−1) associated with symmetric Ce–O bond stretching in cubic ceria units is present in all prepared catalysts. A weak band close to 570 cm
−1 corresponding to the bridge Pt–O–Ce is indicated in the red rectangle [
30]. This Pt–O–Ce band was observed exclusively in the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst, which may contribute to its good catalytic performance.
H
2-TPR analysis was conducted to examine the reduction behavior of the synthesized catalysts (Fig. S9 in Supporting information). CeO
2/SiO
2 shows reduction peaks at 280 ℃ and 700 ℃, which are attributed to the reduction of surface CeO
2 and bulk CeO
2, respectively [
51–
53]. Pt/SiO
2 exhibits reduction peaks at 100 ℃ and 300 ℃, corresponding to the reduction of Pt
2+ to Pt
0 and the reduction related the Pt–O–Si interaction, respectively [
30,
54]. By contrast, Pt/CeO
2 and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 do not exhibit obvious reduction peaks corresponding to the conversion of Pt
2+ to Pt
0. This may be attributed to the relatively large size of Pt nanoparticles, which makes their reduction more difficult. Compared with Pt/CeO
2, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 exhibits a higher surface CeO
2 reduction temperature. This may be because the small-sized CeO
2 particles are confined in the SiO
2 pores, which hinder their reduce. Notably, a reduction peak of Pt–O–Ce (115 ℃) appears in Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O [
30], attributed to the uniform dispersion of small Pt particles after steam treatment, which facilitates the form a Pt–O–Ce interface with CeO
2.
To evaluate the catalytic activity, C
8H
8 was used as a model compound at 200 ppm concentration with a WHSV of 120,000 mL g
−1 h
−1. The temperature-dependent C
8H
8 conversion profiles are depicted in
Fig. 3a. The temperatures corresponding to 50% and 90% conversion (
T50 and
T90), which serve as characteristic indicators of catalytic activity, are summarized in
Table 1. Among the catalysts, Pt/CeO
2 exhibits the lowest activity, with
T50 and
T90 values of 229 ℃ and 269 ℃, respectively. By contrast, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 shows significantly enhanced performance, with
T50 and
T90 reduced to 205 ℃ and 234 ℃, respectively. This improvement may be attributed to the confinement effect of SiO
2, which reduces the sizes of Pt and CeO
2, thereby enhancing catalytic activity. Following steam treatment, the catalytic activity of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O is further enhanced, with
T50 and
T90 dropped to 190 ℃ and 222 ℃, respectively. Additionally, the performance of Pt/SiO
2 was tested and found to exhibit low activity at low temperatures, indicating that highly dispersed CeO
2 is crucial for activating the styrene catalytic reaction. The CO
2 yield closely follows the C
8H
8 conversion (Fig. S10 in Supporting information), suggesting efficient deep oxidation capability. Comparison with reported high-performance catalysts (
Fig. 3b and Table S4 in Supporting information) reveals that Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O shows a high reaction rate of 29.28 µmol g
−1 s
−1 at 250 ℃ [
9,
42,
55–
59]. Given that industrial exhaust often contains steam, the influence of steam on catalytic activity was investigated. As shown in
Fig. 3c, introducing 2 vol% and 5 vol% steam into the reaction stream system had negligible impact on the C
8H
8 conversion over Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O. Even with 10 vol% steam, C
8H
8 conversion only decreased by 5%, likely due to weakened competitive adsorption of H
2O at high temperatures [
60]. Notably, the catalytic activity fully recovered shortly after steam removal, indicating excellent stability and steam resistance, and the potential for industrial applications.
To probe the intrinsic catalytic activity, kinetic measurements were conducted while maintaining C
8H
8 conversion below 15%. A lower apparent activation energy (
Ea) enables more reactant molecules to overcome the energy barrier and react, thereby accelerating the reaction. Based on the Arrhenius plots presented in
Fig. 3d, the
Ea values of Pt/CeO
2, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O are 76 ± 4, 57 ± 3, 45 ± 2 kJ/mol, respectively (
Table 1). This indicates that C
8H
8 oxidation proceeds more readily over Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O. This trend is consistent with the catalytic activity observed in the total oxidation of C
8H
8. Moreover, the turnover frequency (TOF) values based on Pt dispersion were calculated at 200 ℃ (
Table 1). To further visualize this relationship, the TOF values were plotted against the Pt dispersion of the catalysts (Fig. S11 in Supporting information), revealing a clear linear increase in TOF with increasing Pt dispersion, and the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst reached a maximum value of 1.1 s
−1, indicating that enhanced Pt dispersion increased the number of Pt–O–Ce sites and facilitated the catalytic oxidation of C
8H
8. In summary, the superior performance of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O is primarily attributed to the synergistic effects of highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles, abundant oxygen vacancies, active Pt–O–Ce interfaces, and enhanced electron transfer capability, which collectively contribute to its exceptional catalytic performance.
Previous studies indicate that the catalytic oxidation reaction of C
8H
8 generally follows either the Mars-van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism or the Langmuir–Hinshelwood (L–H) mechanism. In the MvK mechanism, C
8H
8 molecules undergo a redox cycle on the catalyst surface by abstracting lattice oxygen, leading to oxidation of C
8H
8 and formation of oxygen vacancies. These oxygen vacancies are subsequently replenished by gas O
2 or the migration of lattice oxygen from the bulk, thereby restoring the catalyst to its initial state [
24,
61,
62]. Under this mechanism, the reaction rate is insensitive to O
2 partial pressure. In order to analyze the reaction mechanism of C
8H
8, the reaction rates were measured at 170 ℃ under varying partial pressures of O
2 and C
8H
8 (
Figs. 3e and f). For all catalysts, the reaction order of O
2 is below 1, supporting the MvK mechanism and indicating that lattice oxygen plays a major role in the reaction [
63]. The reaction orders of C
8H
8 over Pt/CeO
2 and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalysts are 0.07 and 0.23 respectively, slightly higher than those of O
2 (0.04 and 0.22), indicating that these catalysts have a stronger adsorption capacity for C
8H
8 [
64]. Therefore, the lattice oxygen in the catalysts can directly react with the adsorbed C
8H
8 via the MvK mechanism [
65]. By contrast, the Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 catalyst exhibits a higher reaction order for O
2 (0.18) than for C
8H
8 (0.09), suggesting that enhanced O
2 activation may facilitate the oxidation of C
8H
8. Furthermore, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O shows the highest reaction order for O
2 likely due to its elevated oxygen vacancy concentration.
Figs. S12a and b (Supporting information) display the pore size distribution and N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms of the catalysts, respectively. In accordance with the IUPAC classification, these isotherms bear a resemblance to the standard type I adsorption-desorption isotherms, featuring an H1-type hysteresis loop. This characteristic indicates that mesopores are present in the catalysts. Table S5 presents the specific surface area, total pore volume, and average pore diameter of catalysts. Compared with Pt/CeO2, the addition of SiO2 carrier significantly increases the specific surface area while reducing the pore diameter.
XPS was implemented to investigate the electronic structure and surface elemental composition of catalysts. High-resolution Pt 4f spectra show that Pt exists predominantly in a mixture of the Pt
0 and Pt
2+ species in all catalysts (Fig. S13 in Supporting information). Quantitative analysis (Table S6 in Supporting information) reveals that the Pt
0/(Pt
0+Pt
2+) ratio increases following the sequence of Pt/CeO
2 (0.78) < Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 (0.82) < Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O (0.85). This increase in Pt
0 content is likely one of the primary factors contributing to the excellent catalytic performance exhibited by Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O. As demonstrated in Fig. S14a (Supporting information), the Ce 3d spectra can be deconvoluted into eight peaks, corresponding to four spin-orbit doublets associated with Ce
3+ and Ce
4+ [
66]. Peaks V’, U’, U’’, and U’’’ are attributed to Ce
3+, while V, V’’, V’’’, and U correspond to Ce
4+ [
2]. Since Ce
3+ is regarded as an indicator of oxygen vacancy formation, a high Ce
3+ concentration implies more abundant oxygen vacancies [
67–
69]. The Ce
3+/(Ce
3++Ce
4+) ratio for Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O is 0.56, significantly higher than that of other catalysts (0.41–0.46), suggesting a high concentration of surface oxygen vacancies. Deconvolution of the O 1s spectra (Fig. S14b in Supporting information) yielded three components, which correspond to lattice oxygen (O
latt), adsorbed oxygen (O
ads), and surface hydroxyl (O
OH) at 531.1, 533.2, and 535.1 eV, respectively [
70]. The ratio of O
ads/(O
latt+O
ads+O
OH) was utilized to assess the concentration of adsorbed oxygen species (presented in Table S6). Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalyst exhibits the highest value of O
ads/(O
latt+O
ads+O
OH) indicating the highest concentration of adsorbed oxygen. O
2-TPD analysis was executed to gain a deeper understanding of the characteristics of surface oxygen species. As shown in Fig. S15 (Supporting information), the desorption peak below 300 ℃ is ascribed to oxygen species adsorbed on the surface in the vicinity of oxygen vacancies [
42,
71]. The peak area follows the sequence of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O > Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 > Pt/CeO
2. The results indicate that Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O contains a greater number of oxygen vacancies, thereby enabling it to adsorb a larger amount of surface-adsorbed oxygen species. This observation aligns with the results from UV–vis and Raman analyses.
The C8H8-TPD curves of catalysts are presented in Fig. S16 (Supporting information). For Pt/CeO2, CO2 peaks appear concurrently with the desorption of C8H8. This indicates that lattice oxygen species at surface defects oxidize a portion of C8H8 into CO2. For Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O, the significantly lower C8H8 desorption temperature (117 ℃) suggests the presence of weak adsorption sites, where C8H8 molecules can desorb in a molecular form at low temperatures. More importantly, the much smaller C8H8 desorption peak area (3.2) coupled with the substantially larger CO2 peak area (34.3) (Table S7 in Supporting information) clearly demonstrates its superior oxidation capability. The C8H8-TPSR profiles of catalysts are depicted in Fig. S17 and Table S7 (Supporting information). Within the temperature range of 70–200 ℃, all catalysts exhibit similar C8H8 desorption behavior. This can be categorized as either strongly physically adsorbed or weakly chemically adsorbed C8H8. By contrast, the desorption peak area (4.1) of Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O is relatively smaller. Along with the desorption of C8H8, a more intense CO2 peak (Fig. S17b) emerges at approximately 300–400 ℃. Subsequently, the broad CO2 peaks between 450 and 600 ℃ arise from the oxidation of chemisorbed C8H8. The data suggests that the two prominent CO2 generation peaks are associated with the interaction between adsorbed oxygen and surface lattice oxygen species. The CO2 formation peak temperature of Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O is lower compared to that of the other catalysts. This finding reveals that Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O exhibits superior oxygen mobility, which promotes oxidation activity.
The complex C
8H
8 oxidation process was investigated through
in situ DRIFTS. As displayed in
Fig. 4, the band at 3060 cm
−1 corresponds to the C–H stretching vibration of adsorbed C
8H
8, and the bands at 1572 and 1622 cm
−1 are attributed to the typical aromatic ring vibrations, implying the adsorption of C
8H
8 on all catalysts. In addition, the intermediates of C
8H
8 degradation were also detected. The band at around 1335 cm
−1 is probably ascribed to the C–O stretching vibration of benzyl alcohol, formed through the oxidative cleavage of the C
8H
8 double bon. The bands observed at 1717 cm
−1 is due to the formation of the C=O group in benzaldehyde while the band at 1504, 1521, and 1399 cm
−1 are assigned to benzoic acid. Moreover, the bands located at 1427 and 1215 cm
−1 can be identified as maleic anhydride, indicating the ring-breakage of phenyl. It can be seen from
Fig. 4a that with the increase in the temperature of the oxidation reaction, there is no significant change in the intermediate products of Pt/CeO
2, indicating that the oxidation ability of Pt/CeO
2 is relatively weak. For Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 (
Fig. 4b), there was no significant change in the intermediate products before 180 ℃. After the temperature was raised to 230 ℃, the C–H vibration peak of C
8H
8 at 3060 cm
−1 became weaker, while the peak intensity of CO
2 (2350 cm
−1) increased. When the temperature reached 250 ℃, the C–H vibration peak of C
8H
8 decreased significantly. Except for the peak of benzyl alcohol becoming smaller, the vibration peaks of the other intermediate products such as benzaldehyde, benzoic acid, and maleic anhydride all became stronger. With the increase in the reaction temperature of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O (
Fig. 4c), the peak intensities of the C–H vibration peak of C
8H
8 and that of benzyl alcohol gradually decreased, while the peaks of benzaldehyde and CO
2 gradually increased. The peak of benzyl alcohol reaches a maximum at 180 ℃ and decreases as the temperature rises to 230 ℃. At 250 ℃, the benzaldehyde peak decreases significantly and is lower than that of Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, indicating that Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O has a stronger oxidation capacity. The cleavage of benzaldehyde is the key rate-determining step in C
8H
8 oxidation, and the existence of Pt–O–Ce active sites facilitates benzene ring cleavage in benzaldehyde.
Combined with
in situ DRIFTS, Raman, H
2-TPR,
quasi in situ XPS, and O
2-TPO analyses, the reaction mechanism for the oxidation of C
8H
8 over Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O can be outlined as follows: Styrene (C
8H
8) → benzyl alcohol (C
7H
8O) → benzaldehyde (C
7H
6O) → benzoate (C
6H
5COOH) → maleates (C
4H
4O
4) → carbon dioxide and water (CO
2, H
2O) (
Fig. 5) [
9,
42,
47]. For Pt/CeO
2, only benzoic acid and maleic acid were detected as intermediate products, reflecting its poor oxygen mobility and weak oxidation capacity.
To analyze the influence of oxygen spillover on the deep oxidation of styrene, the styrene oxidation processes of the Pt/SiO
2, Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2, and Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O catalysts were investigated after reduction in 10% H
2/Ar (30 mL/min) at 230 ℃ and subsequent oxidation in 3% O
2/He (30 mL/min) at different temperatures. For Pt/SiO
2 (
Fig. 4d), the characteristic peaks of the styrene oxidation products remained basically consistent after H
2 reduction and O
2 oxidation at different temperatures. By contrast, for Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2 (
Fig. 4e), the C=O vibration peak of benzaldehyde at 1717 cm
−1 was significantly enhanced after oxidation at 450 ℃, indicating that the oxygen spillover of CeO
2 promoted the oxidation of styrene. Notably, for Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O (
Fig. 4f), both the C=O vibration peak of benzaldehyde at 1717 cm
−1 and the CO
2 peaks significantly enhanced, exceeding the intensities observed for Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2. This suggests that Pt/CeO
2/SiO
2-H
2O has a stronger oxygen spillover and enhanced capacity for C
8H
8 deep oxidation.
Herein, the confinement effect of waste rice husk-derived porous SiO2 was used to fabricate highly uniform CeO2. Then, highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles were deposited on CeO2/SiO2 via a strategy combining ethylene glycol reflux reduction and steam redispersion. Steam treatment promoted the redispersion of Pt aggregates into fine Pt nanoparticles at low temperature, while the resulting highly dispersed CeO2 and Pt nanoparticles increase the oxygen vacancy concentration. Pt–O–Ce active interfaces promote the oxygen spillover from CeO2 nanoparticles to Pt and facilitates the catalytic oxidation of C8H8 over Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O catalyst. The Pt–O–Ce interface induced C-H bond cleavage in benzaldehyde is the rate determining step of C8H8 oxidation. Pt/CeO2/SiO2-H2O exhibited the highest catalytic oxidation activity for C8H8 (T90 = 222 ℃, WHSV=120,000 mL h−1 g−1). Additionally, it showed favorable thermal stability and resistance to steam (10 vol%). This study proposes a strategy for fabricating supported catalysts that possess specific active interfaces and high stability.