Deep oxidation of aqueous organics over a silicon carbide-activated carbon supported platinum–ruthenium bimetallic catalyst

In previous work, we developed a highly active bimetallic platinum–ruthenium catalyst supported on a very high surface area activated carbon substrate. In fixed bed reactors, this catalyst proved capable of the continuous long-term deep oxidation of a variety of aqueous organic contaminants associated with spacecraft wastewater streams at 121 °C. This work was extended to the mineralization of more typical environmental contaminants, including halocarbons and aromatics. The primary weakness of this catalyst was the tendency toward relatively high rates of chemical decomposition. To overcome this limitation, methods were developed for the production of a silicon carbide coating over the surface of the activated carbon, yielding a reasonable trade-off between increasing resilience and decreasing surface area. Here we report the catalytic decomposition of dissolved organic contaminants at 130 °C using this silicon carbide/activated carbon supported bimetallic catalyst.