MECANOCHEMISTRY AS GREEN CHEMISTRY METHOD OF THE
INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES CATALYSTS PREPARATION
Zazhigalov Valery1, Wieczorek-Ciurowa Krystyna2, Bacherikova Iryna1, Depero Laura3
1
Institute for Sorption and Problems of Endoecology, NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
2
Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland
3
University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
zazhigal@ispe.kiev.ua
Abstract
The development of new catalysts which minimise damage to the environment connects with
the following directions: i) the use of new techniques in the catalysts manufacture which
reduce the quantity of toxic by-products (wastes), ii) the creation of new effective catalysts
with high selectivity to main product which reduces the number of harmful by-products, iii)
the development of new processes and catalysts which produce the required product from
non-toxic raw materials and/or without toxic waste, iv) the design of new effective ecological
catalysts.
In this communication the possibilities of mechanochemistry as new alternative green
chemistry technique of the catalysts preparation in solution of all these problems will be
considered. The mechanochemistry can be used for catalyst manufacture in the following
variants: i) the mechanochemical activation of raw materials before traditional synthesis of
catalyst (MChAI), ii) the mechanochemical activation of the catalyst prepared by traditional
way (MChAC), iii) the direct mechanochemical synthesis of the catalyst from raw materials
(MChS) including of the additive introduction. All presented variants will be considered on
examples of practical and perspective catalysts and processes: i) VPO catalyst for n-butane
oxidation to maleic anhydride, ii) VTiO catalyst for o-xylene oxidation to phthalic anhydride,
iii) MoO based catalyst for direct benzene oxidation to phenol by molecular oxygen, iv)
CuCeO catalyst for neutralization of industrial wastes of CO and hydrocarbons.
VPO catalyst for n-butane oxidation. It was established that preliminary activation of V2O5
permits to reduce to 4-5 times the quantity of organic solvent used in traditional synthesis of
VPO catalyst (MChAI). It was shown that mechanochemical activation of VPO catalyst leads
to increase its selectivity in n-butane oxidation and decreases the amount of CO, CO2 and
light acids in the catalytic process products (MChAC). Mechanochemical introduction of
additive from metal oxide instead of metal sol in traditional synthesis (elimination of NOx or
HCl wastes in synthesis) allows to an increase the activity and selectivity of catalyst also
(MChS).
VTiO catalyst for o-xylene oxidation. Direct mechanochemical synthesis (MChS) of the
catalyst from oxides permits to eliminate the NH3 and NOx pollutions in the sample
manufacture and leads to preparation of the selective and active catalyst o-xylene oxidation
which can be exploited at low temperature at a decrease of by-products formation.
Mo based catalyst for benzene oxidation. Mechanochemical activation of MoO3 (MChAI)
and mechanochemical synthesis of MoTiO oxides mixture (MChS) permit to prepare the
catalysts for new process of benzene oxidation by molecular oxygen instead of cumene
technology of phenol manufacture.
CuCeO catalyst for pollutions neutralization. The mechanochemical activation CuCeO
catalyst prepared by citrate method (MChAC) allows to an increase its activity in CO and
paraffins total oxidation in industrial waste gases.