Total oxidation of trichloroethylene over mayenite (Ca12Al14O33) catalyst

[Display omitted] •Mayenite catalyst promotes the total oxidation of trichloroethylene.•Trichloroethylene is quantitatively converted in CO2 and Cl−.•Catalyst shows high recyclability without losses in activity and selectivity. The catalytic oxidation of gaseous trichloroethylene (TCE), mediated by a cost effective mayenite support, was studied in a fixed bed reactor. Mayenite was synthetized by using hydrothermal method and characterized before and after catalytic oxidation experiments by using XRD, N2-sorption (BET), SEM-EDX, TEM and FTIR; the reaction products were analyzed by means of GC–MS, IC and a IR-based CO2 probe. The results showed that mayenite promoted the total oxidation of TCE in the temperature range 300–500°C, where TCE was quantitatively converted in CO2 and chlorine. The mayenite catalyst showed high recyclability and could be used for several reaction cycles without any loss of activity and selectivity. Owing to its characteristics, mayenite was found to be a promising catalyst for the TCE total conversion and remediation.