Influence of oxygen and water content on the formation of polychlorinated organic by-products from catalytic degradation of 1,2-dichlorobenzene over a Pd/ZSM-5 catalyst.

Understanding the generation and influence mechanism of polychlorinated organic by-products during the catalytic degradation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) is essential to the safe and environmentally friendly treatment of those pollutants. In this study, a systematic investigation of the catalytic oxidation of 1,2-dichlorobenzene (1,2-DCB) was conducted using various oxygen and water contents over a Pd/ZSM-5(25) catalyst. It was found that decreasing the oxygen content and increasing the water content resulted in the improvement of the 1,2-DCB catalytic activity, while the amount and variety of polychlorinated organic by-products decreased. More importantly, when water was the sole oxidant, the Pd/ZSM-5(25) catalyst also demonstrated high activity towards 1,2-DCB catalytic degradation. Only chlorobenzene and 1,3-dichlorobenzene were detected as by-products. X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) and UV-vis DRS spectra results indicated that the polychlorinated organic by-products were suppressed mainly due to inhibition of the chlorination of the palladium species by regulating the oxygen and water content in the reaction atmosphere. Similar surface species were formed under aerobic and anaerobic atmospheres via the study of the in situ FTIR spectra. We therefore proposed that 1,2-DCB undergoes similar catalytic degradation reaction mechanisms under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.