Diesel engines are widely used in passenger cars and engineering equipment due to their good fuel economy and high thermal efficiency[1, 2]. However, the PM in diesel engine exhaust will cause harm to the atmospheric environment and human health[3, 4].
Diesel catalytic traps, which combine trapping and catalytic oxidation, are one of the most promising after-treatment technologies for reducing particulate matter emissions[5]. The key to catalytic oxidation is to select a suitable catalyst to reduce the temperature of particle oxidation. Currently, the commonly used catalysts are mainly noble metal-based catalysts, perovskite oxides, and single-component metal oxides. Noble metal-based catalysts have outstanding performance for PM purification at the early stage, but their performance drops sharply in the late stage due to their thermal durability problems under high temperature and lean conditions[6]. Single-component metal oxide catalysts have a high specific surface area, good redox performance and low cost, but their biggest disadvantage is their low thermal stability and easy aggregation at high temperatures, resulting in a lower specific surface area[7]. In contrast, perovskite oxides have the advantages of low cost, good chemical stability, and high thermal stability[1, 8, 9], and are considered to be able to replace noble metals and metal oxides for catalytic oxidation of PM. Nunzio Russo et al.[10] prepared a series of La-Co nanostructured catalysts by combustion synthesis, deposited the catalysts on SiC wall-flow traps, and conducted activity tests on a diesel engine bench. The results showed that the presence of the catalyst reduces the regeneration time of the trap and improves fuel economy. Kayode Akinlolu et al.[11] synthesized a series of La1 − xCaxCoO3 (x = 0, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) doped perovskite catalysts using a sol-gel method and a calcination temperature of 750°C, and tested the catalysts for PM. The results showed that after the introduction of Ca, the surface area of the catalyst was slightly increased and the catalytic activity of the catalyst was improved by about 30%. Zou et al.[12] synthesized Co1 − xLaxOy catalysts by the citric acid complex method, and studied their catalytic activity for PM in the air, found that LaCoO3 catalysts can promote the oxidation of PM.
According to the different particle sizes, PM is mainly divided into three modes: nucleation mode (0.005 ~ 0.05µm, the mass ratio is 1 ~ 20%), accumulation mode (0.03 ~ 1µm) and coarse mode (> 1µm, the mass ratio is 5 ~ 20%)[13]. In contrast, the pore size (< 10 nm) of powdered catalysts is smaller than that of PM[14, 15], which leads to less contact between the inner surface of the catalyst and PM, limiting the catalytic efficiency of the catalyst for PM. To improve the contact conditions between the catalyst and PM, the pore structure of perovskite is often adjusted by improving the preparation method to obtain perovskite catalysts with higher catalytic efficiency[16]. Template method is an effective way to prepare porous structure catalysts. Li et al.[17] synthesized a series of highly active three-dimensional ordered macroporous (3DOM) La1 − xKxMnO3 catalysts by the colloidal crystal template method. The structure can also improve the catalytic activity of the catalyst and reduce the ignition point of PM. Ma et al.[18] used the dip-sintering method to coat LaCoO3 on the walls of 3DOM SiOC/cordierite and conducted catalytic oxidation studies of PM on the 3DOM samples, showing that the 3DOM structure provided the catalyst with lower PM than conventional catalysts combustion temperature, while LCO/3DOM SiOC/cordierite lowers the combustion temperature and reduces the back pressure. Zheng et al.[15] prepared 3DOM LaMn1 − xFexO3 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15) with different pore sizes by using polymethyl methacrylate microspheres with different diameters as templates by colloidal crystal template method, the study showed that the 3DOM catalyst has good catalytic performance for diesel PM combustion, and its catalytic activity increases with the increase of pore size. However, the preparation process of 3DOM is very strict and complicated, and the collapse or loss of the three-dimensional porous structure may occur during the template removal process, which will lead to poor stability of the porous structure.
Bio-templates have shown good application prospects in the field of catalysis due to their natural pore structure, simple preparation process, low cost, clear morphology, and environmental friendliness[19]. For example, Song et al.[20] fabricated porous SnO2 with pollen grains as templates, which displayed a fine hierarchical porous structure and exhibited excellent performance for gas molecule transport and sensory reactions. Zhao et al.[21] synthesized hierarchically porous LaFeO3 perovskite by a simple process using pomelo peel as a biological template and tested the catalytic performance of the prepared samples for NO + CO, and the results showed that the NO conversion rate reached 95% at 324°C, and the CO conversion reaches 94% at 350°C.
Wood powder is a biomass organic polymer material, which is abundant in output as the leftover waste from wood processing. In terms of chemical composition, the wood powder is mainly composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, which contain a large number of functional groups such as hydroxyl and carboxyl groups[22], which have the effect of adsorbing metal ions[23]. In terms of physical structure, the special porous three-dimensional network structure of wood powder is conducive to the penetration of the precursor solution, and the tracheids contained in wood powder are conducive to the circulation of substances between adjacent cells[24]. Therefore, wood powder can be an ideal choice for bio-templated preparation of porous perovskites. Using wood powder as a template to prepare porous perovskite, its porous structure can play a role in spatial confinement for catalyst structure construction, providing more active sites and surface effects for the catalyst surface, and improving the catalytic performance of the material.
In this paper, porous LaCoO3 was prepared by using wood powder and combined with the sol-gel method. The final LaCoO3 not only retained the structure of wood powder, but also had multi-diameter pore structure. At the same time, powdered LaCoO3 was prepared by the traditional sol-gel method, which was compared with porous LaCoO3. A series of characterizations were carried out on the prepared catalysts to determine the chemical composition and microscopic properties. The trapping and catalytic oxidation effects of catalysts on the particulate matter were investigated by engine bench test and thermogravimetric analyzer, respectively.