Promotional effect of doping Cu into cerium-titanium binary oxides catalyst for deep oxidation of gaseous dichloromethane

In recent years, significant effort has been made in the development of novel catalysts for the total oxidation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds. In this work the catalytic activity of Cu doped cerium-titanium binary oxides for the oxidation of dichloromethane (DCM) have been studied for the first time. Combining catalysts characterization and activity data, it was found that Cu ions can uniformly disperse into titanium dioxide to form solid solution and induce the creation of additional surface oxygen species on the catalysts surface, while moderate amount of Ce ions are still needed for the activation of CCl. Detailed analysis of the in-situ FTIR experiment results revealed that the surface oxygen species, especially the hydroxyl groups associated with Cu ions, can promote the deep oxidation of the intermediate species formed in the nucleophilic substitution process occurred on the active sites of catalysts surface. The sample with the Cu/Ce molar ratio of 1:3 obtained a better CO2 selectivity than that reached with cerium-titanium binary oxides. Meanwhile, according to element balance analysis, removal of chlorine from the catalyst surface was also promoted by Cu doping.