Rapid and complete degradation of sulfur mustard adsorbed on M/zeolite-13X supported (M = 5 wt% Mn, Fe, Co) metal oxide catalysts with ozone

Abstract

Degradation of sulfur mustard (HD) adsorbed on zeolite-13X as well as M/zeolite-13X metal oxide materials (M = 5 wt% Mn, Fe, Co) was studied with and without gaseous ozone as the oxidizing agent under ambient reaction conditions. In the absence of ozone gas HD degradation was very slow over bare zeolite-13X as well as on the metal oxide impregnated zeolite-13X catalysts. Introduction of ozone gas remarkably enhanced the rate of degradation of HD and complete oxidation of HD was achieved on M/zeolite-13X materials in less than 10 minutes of reaction time. The influence of metal content, and catalyst quantity on the distribution of HD degradation products was also investigated. The results revealed that slightly longer reaction times (>5 minutes) and higher catalyst quantity favor the complete oxidation of HD. Carbon oxides were identified as the major degradation products of HD in the presence of ozone. GC-MS techniques were used for the analysis of the gas phase, condensed and surface extracted products. The HD degradation mechanism in the presence and absence of ozone was proposed based on GC-MS analysis results. The M/zeolite-13X catalysts were prepared using a wet impregnation method and characterized by different characterization techniques.