Low-temperature catalytic combustion of trichloroethylene over cerium oxide and catalyst deactivation

Cerium oxide catalysts prepared by a thermal decomposition method using the salt nitrate as precursor were tested for the catalytic combustion of trichloroethlyene (TCE), as a model of chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs). CeO₂ catalysts calcined at different temperature were found to possess high catalytic activity for catalytic combustion of TCE, and CeO₂ calcined at 550 °C was the most active catalyst and the complete combustion temperature (T_90%) of TCE was 205 °C. Effects of systematic variation of reaction conditions, including space velocity, inlet TCE concentration and water concentration on TCE catalytic combustion were investigated. Additionally, the stability and deactivation of CeO₂ catalysts were studied by various characterization methods (such as TG/DTA, EDS, XRD, Raman and XPS) and other assistant experiments.