Investigation of cyclohexane catalytic degradation driven by N atoms from N2 discharges

The effect of N2 discharge products on cyclohexane degradation over a MnO2/γ-Al2O3 catalyst has been evaluated by feeding N2 discharge products to the catalyst using a specially designed dielectric barrier discharge reactor. At a reaction temperature of 100 °C, the cyclohexane conversion increased from 2.46% (without N2 discharge products) to 26.3% (with N2 discharge products). N- and O-containing by-product (3, 4-dehydroproline) was found on the catalyst surface using gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry identification, in which C=N-C and C=N-H bonds were also confirmed from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis results. Operando analysis results using diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy revealed that N atoms can react with surface H2O possibly to NH and OH reactive species that have reactivities to promote CO oxidation to CO2. The mechanism of N-atom-driven cyclohexane degradation to CO and CO2 is proposed. © 2023 Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences and IOP Publishing.