Catalytic Complete Oxidation of Ethyl Acetate on MnOx/MgAl2O4 Catalysts

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), play a crucial role as precursors of ozone (O₃) and secondary organic aerosols, making them significant air pollutants. Efforts to effectively eliminate ethyl acetate (EA), a typical VOC in many industrial processes, has attracted significant attention worldwide. In this study, a catalyst consisting of MgAl₂O₄ spinel prepared via the sol-gel method was adopted to support MnO_x by incipient wetness impregnation for complete catalytic oxidation of EA. The prepared catalysts were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, BET, XPS and H₂-TPR. It was found that the calcination temperature of the support is crucial for the catalytic activity. The optimal calcination temperature of the support is found to be 800°C, resulting in a perfect MgAl₂O₄ spinel phase and a crystalline size of 8.3 nm. The optimized MnO_x/MA-800 displayed high catalytic activity (T₉₅ = 240°C) and stability due to its high reduction ability and high atomic ratios of Mn⁴⁺/Mn³⁺ and O_ads/O.