Reaction Pathways during the Oxidation of Ethyl Acetate on a Platinum/Alumina Catalyst

Abstract

The control of airborne emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can often be achieved through catalytic oxidation over noble metals (e.g., platinum) supported on alumina. For many classes of materials, high levels of conversion to innocuous materials (CO[sub 2] and water) can be obtained at low temperature, without the appearance of any reaction intermediates. However, other classes of compounds, such as oxygenated species, do produce significant quantities of partial oxidation products, which can greatly limit the utility of catalytic oxidation for VOC destruction. Within this paper, the authors describe their efforts to understand the reaction pathways leading to the formation of partial oxidation products. Oxidation of ethyl acetate over a platinum catalyst dispersed on [gamma]-alumina and supported on a cordierite monolith has been found to produce partial oxidation products including ethanol, acetic acid, and diethyl ether. The reaction pathways leading to the formation of these partial oxidation products have been developed by examining the reaction over the alumina support without any noble metal present. Platinum is seen to produce complete oxidation products, almost exclusively. The total product spectrum can be obtained by assuming no interaction between alumina and platinum; in other words, simple combination of the results observed from reactionmore » over alumina with the complete oxidation pathway catalyzed by platinum.« less