LAUSR

Abstract In this paper, pomelo peel was used as biological template to obtain hierarchically porous LaFeO3 perovskite for the catalytic oxidation of NO to NO2. In addition, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 adsorption–desorption analyses, X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), NO temperature-programmed desorption (NO-TPD), oxygen temperature-programmed desorption (O2-TPD) and hydrogen temperature-programmed reduction (H2-TPR) were used to investigate the micro-structure and the redox properties of the hierarchically porous LaFeO3 perovskite prepared from pomelo peel biological template and the LaFeO3 perovskite without the biological template. The results indicated that the hierarchically porous LaFeO3 perovskite successfully replicated the porous structure of pomelo peel with high specific surface area. Compared to the LaFeO3 perovskite prepared without the pomelo peel template, the hierarchically porous LaFeO3 perovskite showed better catalytic oxidization of NO to NO2 under the same conditions. The maximum NO conversions for LaFeO3 prepared with and without template were 90% at 305 °C and 76% at 313 °C, respectively. This is mainly attributed to the higher ratio of Fe4+/Fe3+, the hierarchically porous structure with more adsorbed oxygen species and higher surface area for the hierarchically porous LaFeO3 perovskite compared with the sample prepared without the pomelo peel template.