Plasma-reconstructed LaMnO₃ nanonetwork supported palladium catalyst for methane catalytic combustion

Tuning the metal-support interaction is an effective strategy for improved catalytic performance in catalytic combustion of methane. Herein, we prepared Pd/LaMnO₃ catalysts using two types of LaMnO₃, that were achieved by plasma treatment or traditional thermal treatment respectively. Contrast to the LaMnO₃ (LMO-T) support, the plasma-treated LaMnO₃ (LMO-P) support has large surface specific area, porosity and many surface defects. Among these catalysts, the Pd supported on plasma-treated LaMnO₃ (Pd/LMO-P) shows the best catalytic activity (T₉₀ = 471 °C) and the lowest E_a value (74 kJ/mol). It reveals that the high performance should be attributed to the large surface area, surface-rich active species and strong metal-support interaction. The XPS techniques also demonstrated that the plasma-treated could boost the electron transfer between PdO_x and LaMnO₃, improving the redox properties. Moreover, the plasma-treated catalyst exhibits an excellent performance under thermal and water-vapor coexistence environment. The superior performance can arouse interest for the design of advanced catalyst in environmental catalysis.