A Study on the Effect of Support on the Catalytic Activity of OMS-2 for Oxidation of Toluene in Gas Phase

In this study, the complete oxidation of an aromatic hydrocarbon compound such as toluene into carbon dioxide and water was carried out in a continuous fixed bed reactor. OMS-2 material synthesized by the refluxing method was used as the catalyst. To reduce the cost of the catalyst, various support materials were employed for supporting the OMS-2 catalyst. The effects of supports (i.e., bentonite, kaolinite, and alumina) and their contents on the catalytic activity of OMS-2 for the oxidation of toluene were investigated. Among the supports, bentonite with Al:Si ratio of 1:2 was the best material with the lowest temperature that reached 100% of toluene conversion at 260 °C. Therefore, 20% OMS-2/bentonite could be a suitable catalyst with high efficiency but low cost for catalytic oxidation of toluene and other organic compounds in the gas phase.