Sol-gel method is a simple and common synthesis way of catalysts with abundant pore structure and excellent performance.Nevertheless, there are also significant drawbacks associated with the conventional chelating agents, including inadequate low-temperature reducibility and a scarcity of active species.Hence, in this work, we found the chelation of different chelating agents will change the combination mode of different metal elements for binary metal oxide, optimizing the physicochem. properties of catalysts through formative metals interaction.With regard to the action of traditional chelating agent, citric acid, Co species is inclined to be incorporated into the CeO2 lattice surface, producing a considerable number of Co3+ active sites to accomplish the toluene degradationOppositely, under the chelation of pectin, the Co element can be uniformly embedded into the CeO2 bulk phase, boosting the transfer of lattice oxygen to oxidize toluene.Owing to the homogeneous mixing of Co and Ce elements generated a deeper Co-Ce interaction, and ample hierarchical pore structure was formed along with the slow release of pectin during the calcination, thus this optimization mode is more favorable and inducing a series of enhancements of catalyst nature.Benefiting from this, Co1Ce6-P not only features excellent phys. and chem. adsorption of toluene, optimized low-temperature reducibility, but also an accelerated oxygen recycling.Thus, the triple-optimal Co1Ce6-P catalyst prepared from pectin possessed favorable catalytic activity for toluene oxidation (T90 = 250 °C), as well as outstanding long-term stability (90 h) and water resistance (10 vol%).In situ DRIFTS and theor. calculation shows the doping mode of Co species uniformly embedded into CeO2 body of Co1Ce6-P catalyst will significantly promote the migration of lattice oxygen, and thus drive the efficient toluene purificationThereby, this paper elaborates the functions and mechanisms of distinct chelating agents on the toluene degradation performance of catalysts synthesized via sol-gel method, thus providing helpful insights about the preparation of high-performance catalysts through relevant methods.