Development of an Improved HCI Oxidation Process : Structure of the RuO2/Rutile TiO2 Catalyst

Abstract Sumitomo Chemical has developed a new low cost process for HCl catalytic oxidation to Сl2 with a fixed-bed reactor over a new RuO2/rutile-TiO2 catalyst according to the following reaction: (1) 2 HCl + 1 / 2 O 2 → Cl 2 + H 2 O The RuO2/rutile-TiO2 catalyst has high catalytic performance and thermal stability due to a layer of ultra-fine RuO2 crystallites that cover the surface of the TiO2 primary particles with strong interaction. By obtaining coordination numbers of both Ru-O and Ru-Ru shells from Ru EXAFS spectra, followed by crystallite size simulation based on coordination number pairs, the mean RuO2 crystallite size was 9 × 3 A. With this catalyst, high reaction rates required for industrial applications are achieved, even at low temperatures.