Properties and performance of silver‐based catalysts on the catalytic oxidation of toluene

Catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compounds such as toluene over a range of silver-based catalysts has been carried out to assess their performance. The properties of the catalysts were determined by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method, X-ray diffraction, and temperature-programmed reduction. The experimental results revealed that the catalytic activity of an Ag/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst is closely related to the silver loading, and the optimum loading for the complete oxidation of toluene was found to be 11 wt%. The addition of copper to the 11 wt% Ag/gamma-Al2O3 catalyst greatly enhanced its catalytic activity, but the addition of cerium or lanthanum inhibited catalytic activity.