Catalytic oxidation of CS2 over atmospheric particles and oxide catalysts

The catalytic oxidization of CS2 over atmospheric particles and some oxide catalysts was explored through FT-IR, MS and a fixed-bed stainless steel reactor. The results show that atmospheric particles and some oxide catalysts exhibited considerable oxidizing activities for CS2 at ambient temperature. The reaction products are mainly COS and elemental sulfur, even CO2 on some catalysts. Among the catalysts, CaO has the strongest catalytic activity for oxidizing CS2. Fe2O3 is weaker than CaO. The catalytic activity for Al2O3 reduces considerably compared with the former two catalysts, and SiO2 the weakest. Atmospheric particle samples’ catalytic activity is between Fe2O3’s and Al2O3’s. The atmospheric particle sample collected mainly consists of Ca(Al2Si2O8) 4H2O, which is also the main component of cement. COS, the main product, is formed by the catalytic oxidization of CS2 with adsorbed “molecular” oxygen over the catalysts’ surfaces. The concentration of adsorbed oxygen over catalysts’ surfaces may be the key factor contributed to the oxidizing activity. It is indicated that CS2 could be catalytically oxidized over atmospheric particles, which induced that this reaction may be another important source of atmospheric COS from CS2.