PREPARATION OF CATALYSTS BASED ON Cu-Mn FOR COMBUSTION OF n-HEXANE

Abstract

Catalysts based on Cu-Mn mixed oxides (with molar ratio Cu/Mn in the range of 0,33 to 3) have been prepared by sol-gel method of self-combustion for removal of n-hexane. Two combustion agents, citric acid and ethylenglycol, were applied to study their influence in the final catalyst. Additionally, simple oxides have been synthesized using the same procedure for comparison reasons. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and sorption of N (BET method). All samples depicted surfaces, preferentially assigned to 2 2 mesoporosity whose values ranged from 4 to 50 m /g. All XRD difractograms of mixed samples showed the presence of a good crystalinity indepently of composition, with the formation of spinnel-hopcalite phase meanwhile Mn and Cu simple oxide showed peaks attributed to Mn O , Mn O and CuO, respectively. Curves of activity, measured as number of 2 3 3 4 VOC molecules converted per hour and per gram of catalyst, considering the specific surface, showed that mixed oxides with more Mn content were the best, additionally, the sample prepared from citric acid was more active than the corresponding values to simple oxides, probably due to the better specific surface and the better spinel-hopcalite structure obtained.