Catalyst performance and mechanism of catalytic combustion of dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) over Ce doped TiO2.

TiO2 and Ce/TiO2 were synthesized and subsequently used for the catalytic combustion of DCM. TiO2 had abundant Lewis acid sites and was responsible for the adsorption and the rupture of C-Cl bonds. However, TiO2 tended to be inactivated because of chloride poisoning due to the adsorption and accumulation of Cl species over the surface. While, Ce/TiO2 obtained total oxidation of CH2Cl2 at 335°C and exhibited stable DCM removal activity on 100h long-time stability tests at 330°C without any catalyst deactivation. The doped cerium generated Ce(3+) chemical states and surface active oxygen, and therefore played important roles from two aspects as follows. First of all, the poisoning of Cl for Ce/TiO2 was inhibited to some extent by CeO2 due to the rapid removal of Cl on the surface of CeO2, which has been verified by NH3-IR characterization. In the other hand, CeO2 enhanced the further deep oxidation of C-H from byproducts and retained the certain oxidation of CO to CO2. Based on the DRIFT characterization and the catalysts activity tests, a two-step reaction pathway for the catalytic combustion of DCM on Ce/TiO2 catalyst was proposed.