Date of Award

8-31-2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Michelle Foster

Second Advisor

Jonathan Rochford

Third Advisor

Adharsh Raghavan

Abstract

The catalytic elimination of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is a critical objective in environmental remediation, as prolonged exposure to these pollutants severely hazards ecological and public health. Acetone is one of the most common industrial and laboratory solvents, making its complete mitigation through heterogeneous catalytic combustion a primary area of focus. This work presents an in-situ investigation into the surface chemistry of acetone adsorption and its subsequent thermocatalytic oxidation on CeO2 and Ag/CeO2 nanoparticle catalysts. Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) was utilized on the catalysts under high vacuum conditions to observe changes in the surface species as a function of acetone exposure, time, and temperature conditions. While acetone reactivity was minimal on the plain CeO2 nanoparticles, incremental heating was shown to stimulate oxidation of adsorbed acetone molecules, yielding acetate, formate, and carbonate. From the relative peak heights of the vibrational bands assigned to these surface species, several potential mechanisms for the oxidation of acetone on plain CeO2 were elucidated. Impregnating the CeO2 nanoparticles with Ag was found to drastically alter the reactivity at room temperature. On both 2% and 5% Ag/CeO2 surfaces, oxidation of acetone would occur to a greater extent, bypassing the requirement for thermal activation. Subsequent heating of both Ag/CeO2 substrates was shown to fully oxidize most of the acetate and formate species to carbonate. However, a direct comparative analysis between the 2% and 5% Ag loadings revealed that excess silver deposition would suppress acetone adsorption due to metallic clusters physically blocking the active sites of the lattice, suggesting that while Ag doping can enhance reactivity, there is a threshold to its overall benefit in this catalytic system.

Comments

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