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 100 h long-time stability tests at 330 °C without any catalyst deactivation. The doped cerium generated Ce3+ 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.