The study of surface-catalysed reactions of organic compounds in mixed flow-through reactors with on-line analysis

The fate of organic pollutants in the environment depends critically on their reactivity, which is often dominated by interactions with solid-water interfaces. Since most natural systems are open, they are represented in the laboratory better by through-flow than by batch reactors. For the investigation of chemical transformation reactions in heterogeneous systems, a new experimental equipment has been developed. It consists of up to ten completely mixed flow-through reactors (MFRs) combined with an integrated on-line analysis for the measurement of pH, flow rate, and educt/product concentrations. The MFRs are designed to operate under steady-state conditions in order to study negative feedback effects due to reaction products and/or loss of active sites in the course of the experiments. The experimental set-up was applied successfully to the kinetic investigation of hydrolysis and reduction-oxidation reactions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.