A temporal analysis of products study of the mechanism of VOC catalytic oxidation using uranium oxide catalysts

A temporal analysis of products (TAP) reactor is used to investigate the me chanism of oxidation of volatile organic compounds by uranium oxide catalys ts. Continuous flow studies indicated that butane, benzene and chlorobutane VOCs were oxidised to carbon oxides and no partially oxidised products wer e observed. A combination of TAP pulse experiments with oxygen present and absent in the gas phase has indicated that the lattice oxygen from the cata lyst is responsible for the total oxidation activity. This has been confirm ed by studies using isotopically labelled oxygen. It is proposed that the c atalysts operates by a odor mechanism utilising lattice oxygen and the high activity shown by U3O8 is due to the facile uranium redox couple and the n on-stoichiometric nature of the oxide. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All r ights reserved.