A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study of Oxygen Vacancies in Co$_3$O$_4$ for Liquid-Phase Oxidation Catalysis

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Main Authors: Omranpour, Amir, Kämmerer, Lea, Leiva-Leroy, Catalina, Rabe, Anna, Sato, Takuma, Salamon, Soma, Landers, Joachim, Eggert, Benedikt, Weschke, Eugen, Fandré, Jean Pascal, Kumar, Ashwani, Tüysüz, Harun, Muhler, Martin, Wende, Heiko, Behler, Jörg
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Omranpour, Amir
Kämmerer, Lea
Leiva-Leroy, Catalina
Rabe, Anna
Sato, Takuma
Salamon, Soma
Landers, Joachim
Eggert, Benedikt
Weschke, Eugen
Fandré, Jean Pascal
Kumar, Ashwani
Tüysüz, Harun
Muhler, Martin
Wende, Heiko
Behler, Jörg
author_facet Omranpour, Amir
Kämmerer, Lea
Leiva-Leroy, Catalina
Rabe, Anna
Sato, Takuma
Salamon, Soma
Landers, Joachim
Eggert, Benedikt
Weschke, Eugen
Fandré, Jean Pascal
Kumar, Ashwani
Tüysüz, Harun
Muhler, Martin
Wende, Heiko
Behler, Jörg
contents In the present work, we investigate oxygen vacancies (V$_\mathrm{O}$) in Co$_3$O$_4$, both in the bulk phase and under liquid-phase ethylene glycol oxidation, by combining theoretical and experimental techniques. Density functional theory calculations for bulk Co$_3$O$_4$ show that introducing an oxygen vacancy reduces two adjacent Co$^{3+}$ ions to Co$^{2+}$ and narrows the band gap. The newly formed Co$^{2+}$ ions adopt high-spin configurations in distorted octahedral sites and remain stable in this state in ab initio molecular dynamics simulations at $300$ K. Computed O and Co K-edge X-ray absorption spectra for ideal and vacancy-containing Co$_3$O$_4$ show excellent agreement with the experimental data and serve as references to analyze the liquid-phase ethylene glycol oxidation. The comparison with experimental O K-edge spectra of fresh and post-reaction catalysts shows that fresh samples resemble the vacancy-containing reference, whereas post-reaction spectra shift toward the ideal reference. These results suggest that under liquid-phase ethylene glycol oxidation conditions, Co$_3$O$_4$ becomes more oxidized rather than reduced, by refilling preexisting oxygen vacancies. This is further supported by the observation that higher O$_2$ pressures increase the conversion and that the catalyst remains stable and active over several cycles.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_19060
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study of Oxygen Vacancies in Co$_3$O$_4$ for Liquid-Phase Oxidation Catalysis
Omranpour, Amir
Kämmerer, Lea
Leiva-Leroy, Catalina
Rabe, Anna
Sato, Takuma
Salamon, Soma
Landers, Joachim
Eggert, Benedikt
Weschke, Eugen
Fandré, Jean Pascal
Kumar, Ashwani
Tüysüz, Harun
Muhler, Martin
Wende, Heiko
Behler, Jörg
Materials Science
In the present work, we investigate oxygen vacancies (V$_\mathrm{O}$) in Co$_3$O$_4$, both in the bulk phase and under liquid-phase ethylene glycol oxidation, by combining theoretical and experimental techniques. Density functional theory calculations for bulk Co$_3$O$_4$ show that introducing an oxygen vacancy reduces two adjacent Co$^{3+}$ ions to Co$^{2+}$ and narrows the band gap. The newly formed Co$^{2+}$ ions adopt high-spin configurations in distorted octahedral sites and remain stable in this state in ab initio molecular dynamics simulations at $300$ K. Computed O and Co K-edge X-ray absorption spectra for ideal and vacancy-containing Co$_3$O$_4$ show excellent agreement with the experimental data and serve as references to analyze the liquid-phase ethylene glycol oxidation. The comparison with experimental O K-edge spectra of fresh and post-reaction catalysts shows that fresh samples resemble the vacancy-containing reference, whereas post-reaction spectra shift toward the ideal reference. These results suggest that under liquid-phase ethylene glycol oxidation conditions, Co$_3$O$_4$ becomes more oxidized rather than reduced, by refilling preexisting oxygen vacancies. This is further supported by the observation that higher O$_2$ pressures increase the conversion and that the catalyst remains stable and active over several cycles.
title A Combined Theoretical and Experimental Study of Oxygen Vacancies in Co$_3$O$_4$ for Liquid-Phase Oxidation Catalysis
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.19060