The use of black mass in spent primary battery as an oxidative catalyst for removal of volatile organic compounds

Abstract

This work synthesized spent primary batteries (SPBs)-based (SB) catalyst from the black mass (BM) of the respective SPBs of R and D companies and tested it in the complete oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to examine its effectiveness. In particular, benzene, toluene, and o-xylene (BTX) were chosen as representative VOCs. In addition, the physicochemical properties of the RSB and DSB catalysts prepared from the BMs in the SPBs of R and D companies, respectively, were characterized by ICP/OES, SEM/EDX, BET, XRD, TGA, O2-TPO, H2-TPR, and XPS analyses. Notably, the manganese-rich DSB catalyst had a higher activity compared to the RSB catalyst. Also, the dominant crystal phases of the RSB catalyst were of C, ZnMn2O4, Mn3O4, ZnO, and C2K2, and those of the DSB catalyst were of C and MnO2. In particular, the manganese oxide species significantly influenced the catalytic activity. Furthermore, the lattice oxygen mobility of the catalyst contributed to the VOCs complete oxidation. In effect, the BTXs were completely oxidized at less than 380 and 360 °C over the RSB and DSB catalysts, respectively, at a gas hourly space velocity of 50,000 h−1.