Uranium oxide catalysts: environmental applications for treatment of chlorinated organic waste from nuclear industry

ABSTRACT

Huge amounts of nuclear waste, including depleted uranium, significantly contribute to the adverse environmental situation throughout the world. An approach to the effective use of uranium oxides in catalysts for the deep oxidation of chlorine-containing hydrocarbons is suggested. Investigation of the catalytic activity of the synthesized supported uranium oxide catalysts doped with Cr, Mn and Co transition metals in the chlorobenzene oxidation showed that these catalysts are comparable with conventional commercial ones. Physicochemical properties of the catalysts were studied by X-ray diffraction, temperature-programmed reduction with hydrogen (H₂-TPR), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The higher activity of Mn- and Co-containing uranium oxide catalysts in the H₂-TPR and oxidation of chlorobenzene in comparison with non-uranium catalysts may be related to the formation of a new disperse phase represented by uranates. The study of chlorobenzene adsorption revealed that the surface oxygen is involved in the catalytic process.

KEYWORDS:

• Uranium oxide
• catalyst
• deep oxidation
• chlorobenzene
• depleted uranium

Acknowledgements

This work was performed in the framework of ISTC project no. 2799 and Integration Project of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences no 4.7.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Svetlana Lazareva http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1684-1643

Zinfer Ismagilov http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1520-9216

Vadim Kuznetsov http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0895-8796

Nadezhda Shikina http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8946-6119

Mikhail Kerzhentsev http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5988-9818

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by International Science and Technology Center [grant number 2799].