Rice Husk Supported Catalysts for Degradation of Chlorobenzenes in Capillary Microreactor

Chlorinated organic pollutants are persistent, toxic, and ubiquitously distributed environmental contaminants. These compounds are highly bioaccumulative and adversely affect the ozone layer in the atmosphere. As such, their widespread usage is a major cause of environmental and health concern. Therefore, it is important to detoxify such compounds by environment friendly methods. In this work, rice husk supported platinum (RHA-Pt) and titanium (RHA-Ti) catalysts were used, for the first time, to investigate the detoxification of chlorobenzenes in a glass capillary microreactor. High potential (in kV range) was applied to a reaction mixture containing buffer solution in the presence of catalyst. Due to high potential, hydroxyl and hydrogen radicals were produced, and the reaction was monitored by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The main advantage of this capillary reactor is the in situ generation of hydrogen for the detoxification of chlorobenzene. Various experimental conditions influencing detoxification were optimized. Reaction performance of capillary microreactor was compared with conventional catalysis. Only 20 min is sufficient to completely detoxify chlorobenzene in capillary microreactor compared to 24 h reaction time in conventional catalytic method. The capillary microreactor is simple, easy to use, and suitable for the detoxification of a wide range of chlorinated organic pollutants.