Oxidation of Volatile Organic Compounds by Highly Efficient Metal Zeolite Catalysts

Abstract The presence of two metals (M 1 M 2 ) in a zeolite structure enhances the degradation of pollutants in liquid or gas phase comparing to monometallic catalysts. In this work, the complete oxidation of ethyl acetate into CO 2 was achieved by metal catalysts based on NaY zeolite prepared by the ion‐exchange method. The metal zeolite catalysts were optimized by using several parameters: (i) the presence of a second metal in M 1 M 2 catalysts; (ii) the presence or not of a noble metal in the pair CuM 2 (M 2 =Pd, Zn or Ag); (iii) the order of introduction of the metals in M 1 M 2 catalysts (CuPd or PdCu); (iv) particle size of NaY and NaY nano ; and (v) the effect of simultaneously adding metal species (Cu and Pd). M 1 M 2 catalysts presented the best results compared to the monometallic catalysts and the presence of a noble metal in M 1 M 2 catalysts enhanced their acivity. Among the metal phases studied, the catalyst (CuPd) 0.01 ‐Y has shown to be the most efficient for this application.