Oxygen vacancy-rich nitrogen-doped Co3O4 nanosheets as an efficient water-resistant catalyst for low temperature CO oxidation.

Over the past decade, there has been significant research of Co3O4 catalysts for oxidation of carbon mono-oxide (CO) at low temperatures. However, development of water-resistant Co3O4 materials is still challenging. In this work, a novel oxygen vacancy-rich nitrogen-doped Co3O4 catalyst was developed using straightforward urea-assisted method. Nitrogen doping increases oxygen vacancies on the surface in Co3O4 as well as improves the activity of lattice oxygen. Comparing with pure Co3O4 and Co3O4 with less nitrogen doping, the as-synthesized nitrogen-doped Co3O4 exhibited significantly enhanced activity as well as water resistance in the catalytic oxidation of CO. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of CO oxidation on N-doped Co3O4, which provides a new strategy for developing highly active and water-resistant catalysts.