Nanoporous CuO ribbons modified by Au nanoparticles through chemical dealloying and calcination for CO oxidation

•Nanoporous CuO ribbons modified by Au are prepared by dealloying and calcination.•Au nanoparticles embed partly and high dispersed on nanoporous CuO ligaments.•Requisite Au+1 species present after calcination at 600 °C.•Au-added catalysts exhibit obvious higher catalytic activities than CuO supports.

The ultrafine nanoporous CuO ribbons modified by Au nanoparticles are prepared through simply dealloying the melt-spun Al–Cu–Au alloys combined the subsequent calcination in air. A nanoporous Cu (Au) solid solution ribbon is constructed as the removal of Al from the precursory alloys. After calcined at high temperature, Cu is oxidized to CuO with a porous structure and the in situ generated Au nanoparticles embed in ligaments, resulting in the formation of nanoporous CuO/Au composites with a pore size about 25 nm. The experiment results indicate that the composites have large surface area, high activity and stability. And the CO conversion rate can reach 100.0% just at 180 °C. According to XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) results, the superior performance at low temperature is ascribed to the presence of Au+1 species and the interfacial interaction between Au nanoparticles and CuO ligaments. The present work can contribute to the development of the porous catalytic materials with high performances and low cost.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide