Paraffinic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from industrial emissions are always in high concentration and hardly to complete mineralization, resulting in the serious atmosphere pollution. The major challenges facing the catalytic treatment for paraffinic VOCs include poor photocatalytic efficiency, high cost of thermocatalytic oxidation and low stability. Much effort has suggested that combining thermocatalysis with photocatalysis to maximize synergistic effects could overcome their limitations. Herein, a new highly active and stable PtCu/CeO2 ordered porous nanostructure catalyst was synthesized and efficiently applied in the instant mineralization of paraffinic VOCs under photothermocatalytic conditions. The synergetic mechanism of photothermocatalysis over PtCu/CeO2 investigated by optical characterization, reaction kinetics calculations and carbon deposits analysis, can be summarized as follows: (1) low loadings of Pt-Cu alloy clusters onto CeO2 surface leads to the enhanced light-harvesting, improved charge separation and facile the generation of reactive oxygen species, and the dynamic balance of Cu1+,2+/Cu0 results in the high photothermocatalytic performance stability; (2) the intensification of thermocatalytic efficiency by photocatalysis is contributed to the acceleration of the Mars–van Krevelen redox cycle and the lowering activation energy under simulated sunlight irradiation; (3) enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency by thermocatalysis can facilitate to deeply oxidize coke and moderate the negative effect of carbon deposits on photocatalysts. These results may provide a practical application of PtCu/CeO2 catalysts in simultaneous photothermocatalytic mineralization of refractory VOCs and soot particles.

Photothermocatalytic degradation of typical VOCs over PtCu/CeO2 ordered porous-catalysts under simulated solar irradiation

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.