Thermal Catalytic Decomposition of Dimethyl Methyl Phosphonate Using CuO-CeO 2 / γ -Al 2 O 3.

Chemical warfare agents (CWAs) are highly toxic and fast-acting and are easy to cause large-scale poisoning to humans and livestock after being released. The activated carbon used for CWAs adsorption has disadvantages of limited adsorption capacity, easy aging and deactivation. Metal oxides have environmental stability, and they are characterized by long lasting and broad spectrum when used for thermal catalytic decomposition. Therefore, in this study, the supported copper–cerium catalyst CuO-CeO₂/γ-Al₂O₃ was prepared using an equal volume impregnation method. The thermal catalytic decomposition performance was studied using sarin CWAs simulant dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP) as the target compound. The results show that the CuO-CeO₂/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst with a CeO₂ loading of 5% exhibited better thermal catalytic decomposition performance of DMMP. The catalyst provided protection against DMMP for 237 min at 350 °C; CuO was highly dispersed on CuO-5% CeO₂/γ-Al₂O₃, and there was a strong interaction between Cu and Ce on CuO-5% CeO₂/γ-Al₂O₃, which promoted the generation of surface-adsorbed oxygen, leading to a better thermal catalytic decomposition performance of DMMP. This study is expected to provide a reference for the study of catalysts for the thermal catalytic decomposition of CWAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]