HCl Oxidation on IrO2-Based Catalysts: From Fundamentals to Scale-Up

Abstract

IrO2 has been investigated as alternative rutile-type catalyst to RuO2 for gas-phase HCl oxidation. The HCl conversion level over IrO2 at 723 K was comparable to that of RuO2 at ca. 170 K lower temperature, in line with the higher computed energy barrier for chlorine evolution over the former oxide. Similarly to RuO2, chlorination took place only at the IrO2 surface, which is predicted to exhibit full occupation of the coordinatively unsaturated iridium sites and replacement of 50% of the oxygen bridge positions by chlorine. Advantageously, IrO2 is more resistant than RuO2 against oxidation, since the latter forms volatile RuO4 species at high temperatures. IrO2 (2 wt %) supported on TiO2-rutile displayed a 6 times higher activity than on TiO2-anatase. Although this corroborates the crucial role of the structural similarity between the carrier and active phase highlighted in the development of RuO2-based catalysts, some differences were uncovered. (i) Small and highly dispersed IrO2 clusters rather than t...