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.