Porous clays heterostructures as supports of iron oxide for environmental catalysis

Abstract

[EN] Porous Clays Heterostructures (PCH) from natural pillared clays (bentonite with a high proportion of montmorillonite) have been used as supports of iron oxide for two reactions of environmental interest: i) the elimination of toluene (a representative compound of one of the most toxic subsets of volatile organic compounds, aromatics) by total oxidation and ii) the selective oxidation of H2S to elemental sulfur. For both reactions these catalysts have resulted to be remarkably more efficient than similar catalysts prepared using conventional silica as a support. Thus, in the total oxidation of toluene it has been observed that the catalytic activity obtained using siliceous PCH is two orders of magnitude higher than that with conventional silica. The catalytic activity has shown to be dependant of the capacity of the support for dispersing iron oxide in a way that the higher the dispersion of iron oxide on the surface of the support, the higher is the activity. In the case of the selective oxidation of H2S to S both higher catalytic activity and higher selectivity to S have been observed using siliceous porous clays heterostructures than using conventional silica. Highly dispersed FeOx species have been shown as highly selective towards elemental sulfur whereas more aggregated FeOx species favour the formation of sulphur oxides decreasing the selectivity to S. Analyses of the surface by XPS have shown the predominance of sulfate species in the catalysts presenting low selectivity to elemental sulfur.