Catalytic wet oxidation of aqueous methylamine: comparative study on the catalytic performance of platinum–ruthenium, platinum, and ruthenium catalysts supported on titania

Promotion of the dispersion of Ru species supported on TiO₂ was achieved by introduction of Pt component and the role of Pt in enhancing the catalytic performances of Pt–Ru was investigated with catalytic wet air oxidation of methylamine used as a probing reaction. It was found that Pt–Ru/TiO₂ displayed a much better catalytic performance compared with Pt/TiO₂ and Ru/TiO₂ catalysts due to having the highest dispersion of active species. Both high total organic carbon conversion and nitrogen selectivity (∼100%) over Pt–Ru/TiO₂ catalyst were achieved at low temperature (200 °C). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy characterization indicated that there were strong interactions between metal particles and the support, which may increase the catalytic performance of catalysts.