Enhancing electronic metal support interaction (EMSI) over Pt/TiO2 for efficient catalytic wet air oxidation of phenol in wastewater

Abstract

Phenol is one of the major hazardous organic compounds in industrial wastewater. In this work, a highly active Pt/TiO2 catalyst for catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol was obtained by supporting pre-synthesized Pt on TiO2. During the followed hydrogen reduction, strong hydrogen spillover occurred without the migration of TiO2 onto Pt. The reduced support then enhanced the electron transfer from TiO2 to Pt, increasing the percentage of partially negative Pt (Ptδ-), which has been confirmed by XPS. The strong EMSI made the obtained catalyst far more active than Pt/TiO2 prepared by impregnation method. The electron-enriched Pt/TiO2 achieved total organic carbon (TOC) conversion of 88.8% and TOF 149 h−1 at 100 °C and 2 MPa O2, while conventional Pt/TiO2 gave TOC conversion of 39.5% and TOF 41 h−1 for CWAO of phenol. Our work indicates that the enhancement of EMSI between metal and support can be an effective approach to develop highly active catalysts for phenol treatment.