Hydrodechlorination of trichloroethylene over MoP/γ-Al2O3 catalyst with high surface area

•MoP/γ-Al2O3 with high surface area was prepared through SG-TPR method.•MoP/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was firstly employed to hydrodechlorination of TCE reaction.•MoP/γ-Al2O3 prepared by SG-TPR exhibits high catalytic activity.

Alumina-supported molybdenum phosphide (MoP/γ-Al2O3) with high surface area was successfully synthesized by combining sol–gel and temperature-programmed reduction (SG-TPR) method and was firstly used to study the hydrodechlorination (HDC) of trichloroethylene (TCE). The properties of the catalysts were evaluated by several different characterization techniques, such as Braunner–Emmet–Teller (BET) surface area, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results prove that a well-dispersed and high BET surface area catalyst can be obtained by SG-TPR method, which shows higher catalytic activity than those prepared by impregnation and mechanical mixing method for the HDC of TCE.

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