Chlorinated Aromatic Compounds in a Thermal Process Promoted by Oxychlorination of Ferric Chloride

The relationship between the formation of chlorinated aromatic (aromatic-Cl) compounds and ferric chloride in the solid phase during a thermal process motivated us to study the chemical characteristics of iron in a model solid sample, a mixture of FeCl3·6H2O, activated carbon, and boron nitride, with increasing temperature. Fe K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy revealed drastic changes in the chemical form of amorphous iron, consistent with other analytical methods, such as X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation (SR-XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Atomic-scale evidence of the chlorination of aromatic carbon was detected by Cl−K X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. These results showed the thermal formation mechanism of aromatic-Cl compounds in the solid phase with ferric chloride. We attribute the formation of aromatic-Cl compounds to the chlorination of carbon, based on the oxychlorination reaction of FeCl3 at temperatures in excess of ca. 300 °C, when the carbon matrix is activated by carbon gasification, catalyzed by Fe2O3, and surface oxygen complexes (SOC) generated by a catalytic cycle of FeCl2 and FeOCl. Chemical changes of trace iron in a thermal process may offer the potential to generate aromatic-Cl compounds in the solid phase.