Dioxin Decomposition and Detection Using Gold Based Materials

The control of dioxin emissions from incinerators is an environmental and safety concern. Catalytic oxidation at lower temperatures is a better alternative to thermal (uncatalysed) decomposition. Since gold is stable in the presence of halogens, multi-component catalysts containing this metal might be active and stable candidates for oxidative decomposition of this kind of compounds at low temperatures. This is shown by the number of patents and papers dealing with gold for this matter. This paper presents a brief overview concerning the work carried out so far on this important subject. The efficiency of gold, along with that of other metal catalysts like Pt and Ir, on different oxide supports (like TiO2, Fe2O3, SnO2, La2O3, etc), for processing dioxins at very low temperatures, is referred. Gold can also have an important role in dioxin detection, therefore gold based sensors are also mentioned.