Copper-chromite glass fiber catalyst and its performance in the test reaction of deep oxidation of toluene in air

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the novel glass-fiber catalysts (GFC) using copper chromite as an active component for the reaction of deep oxidation of hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The catalyst support is the glass microfibrous fabric preliminarily modified by the addition of an external layer of silica secondary porous support. Surface thermosynthesis was applied for manufacturing of such catalysts. XRD and UV–Vis DRS studies have demonstrated that the active component in the synthesized GFCs is CuCr2O4 in the structural type of partially inverted spinel. As shown in experiments with the deep oxidation of toluene in air, the specific activity of CuCr2O4/GFC per unit mass of the active component exceeds that of the similar conventional CuCr2O4/Al2O3 catalyst by up to 20–30 times. Such significant rise is explained by both the much more efficient mass transfer in GFC cartridges and the higher intrinsic activity of the copper chromite in the GFC, where the particles of CuCr2O4 have the typical size of 10–25 nm compared to >100 nm in case of conventional alumina catalyst. The proposed GFC looks promising for the abatement of hydrocarbons and VOCs in different waste gases.