CATALYTIC DEEP OXIDATION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS OVER FLUORINATED CARBON-SUPPORTED PLATINUM CATALYSTS AT LOW-TEMPERATURES

A novel low-temperature oxidation catalyst, Pt/fluorinated carbon/cera mic (Pt/FCC), has been compared with a conventional Pt/alumina catalys t using the oxidation of benzene as a model reaction to examine the ef fectiveness of the catalyst for the deep oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at temperatures below 200 degrees C. For an equivale nt platinum loading, the activity of the Pt/FCC is comparable to that of the Pt/alumina catalyst in dry feed conditions. However, when water vapor is present in the feed stream, the Pt/FCC catalyst shows signif icantly higher activity than the Pt/alumina catalyst. Under humid cond itions, the benzene oxidation on the Pt/alumina catalyst is substantia lly inhibited by the adsorption of water vapor on both the alumina sup port and on the Pt sites, with the effect of alumina being more signif icant than that of Pt sites. For the Pt/FCC catalyst, the support hydr ophobicity prevents the adsorption of water on the support, and the ad sorption of water vapor on the Pt sites which results in only a slight decrease in activity, suggesting that the Pt/FCC catalyst is more sui table for the deep oxidation of VOCs when the feed gas contains a sign ificant amount of humidity.