Sulphur mustard degradation on zirconium doped Ti–Fe oxides

► New stechiometric materials for sulphur mustard degradation. ► High degree of degradation, more then 95% h −1. ► One-pot synthesis procedure. Zirconium doped mixed nanodispersive oxides of Ti and Fe were prepared by homogeneous hydrolysis of sulphate salts with urea in aqueous solutions. Synthesized nanodispersive metal oxide hydroxides were characterised as the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area and Barrett–Joiner–Halenda porosity (BJH), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) microanalysis, and acid–base titration. These oxides were taken for an experimental evaluation of their reactivity with sulphur mustard (chemical warfare agent HD or bis(2-chloroethyl)sulphide). The presence of Zr 4+ dopant tends to increase both the surface area and the surface hydroxylation of the resulting doped oxides in such a manner that it can contribute to enabling the substrate adsorption at the oxide surface and thus accelerate the rate of degradation of warfare agents. The addition of Zr 4+ to the hydrolysis of ferric sulphate with urea shifts the reaction route and promotes formation of goethite at the expense of ferrihydrite. We discovered that Zr 4+ doped oxo-hydroxides of Ti and Fe exhibit a higher degradation activity towards sulphur mustard than any other yet reported reactive sorbents. The reaction rate constant of the slower parallel reaction of the most efficient reactive sorbents is increased with the increasing amount of surface base sites.