Catalysts for Environmental Remediation: Examples in Photo- and Heterogeneous Catalysis

The properties of catalysts used in environmental remediation are described here through specific examples in heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. In the area of heterogeneous catalysis, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx was used as an example reaction with vanadia and tungsta on titania (V2O5-WO3/TiO2) as the example catalyst.

The main photocatalysts examined for mineralization of organic compounds were TiO2 and MoS2. It is important to obtain insight into the catalyst structure-to-activity relationship in order to understand and locate the active site(s). In this chapter the specific examples were used as a guide showing how this information could be studied and extracted.