Isopropyl Alcohol Total Oxidation Over Platinum Supported on Alumina and Mullite

Total catalytic oxidation of isopropyl alcohol (IPA), used in fragrance lamp industry, remains one of the most popular techniques to remove indoor environmental pollutants (Volatile Organic compounds VOC). Many catalysts were already used in such technique. In our study, catalytic oxidation of isopropyl alcohol was investigated on catalysts based on platinum. The influence of two parameters on the catalytic activity was studied: the active phase content and the effect of methyl cellulose on Pt particles dispersion. In this study, mullite (Al6Si2O13) known for its excellent thermal stability and thermal shock resistance, and alumina (α-Al2O3) were used as supports. Pt/α-Al2O3 and Pt/Al6Si2O13 catalysts were prepared using the impregnation method. Platinum supported on mullite was synthetized in two different ways, with and without methyl cellulose (MC) in order to study the influence of adding methyl cellulose on the platinum particles dispersion over mullite. Furthermore, the resulting materials were characterized by BET, X-Ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and H2-chemisorption to determine the dispersion of platinum particles. All the catalysts were tested in total catalytic oxidation of isopropyl alcohol. This study showed that Pt/Al6Si2O13 synthesized with MC exhibited better activity performance than the one prepared without MC. This can be explained by the fact that the addition of MC enhanced the Pt dispersion over mullite leading to an improvement in the catalytic activity and the selectivity into carbon dioxide. At the end, this study presents scientific findings and many attracted research interest concerning the use of hydrogel based methyl cellulose as a dispersing agent in the synthesis of catalysts.