Enhancing electronic metal support interaction (EMSI) over Pt/TiO 2 for efficient catalytic wet air oxidation of phenol in wastewater

Phenol is one of the major hazardous organic compounds in industrial wastewater. In this work, a highly active Pt/TiO catalyst for catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) of phenol was obtained by supporting pre-synthesized Pt on TiO . During the followed hydrogen reduction, strong hydrogen spillover occurred without the migration of TiO onto Pt. The reduced support then enhanced the electron transfer from TiO to Pt, increasing the percentage of partially negative Pt (Pt ), which has been confirmed by XPS. The strong EMSI made the obtained catalyst far more active than Pt/TiO prepared by impregnation method. The electron-enriched Pt/TiO achieved total organic carbon (TOC) conversion of 88.8% and TOF 149 h at 100 °C and 2 MPa O , while conventional Pt/TiO gave TOC conversion of 39.5% and TOF 41 h for CWAO of phenol. Our work indicates that the enhancement of EMSI between metal and support can be an effective approach to develop highly active catalysts for phenol treatment.