Complete hydrodehalogenation of polyfluorinated and other polyhalogenated benzenes under mild catalytic conditions

Polyfluorinated arenes are increasingly used in industry and can be considered emerging contaminants. Environmentally applicable degradation methods leading to full defluorination are not reported in the literature. In this study, it is demonstrated that the heterogeneous catalyst Rh/Al ₂O₃ is capable of fully defluorinating and hydrogenating polyfluorinated benzenes in water under mild conditions (1 atm H₂, ambient temperature) with degradation half-lives between 11 and 42 min. Analysis of the degradation rates of the 12 fluorobenzene congeners showed two trends: slower degradation with increasing number of fluorine substituents and increasing degradation rates with increasing number of adjacent fluorine substituents. The observed fluorinated intermediates indicated that adjacent fluorine substituents are preferably removed. Besides defluorination and hydrogenation, the scope of the catalyst includes dehalogenation of polychlorinated benzenes, bromobenzene, iodobenzene, and selected mixed dihalobenzenes. Polychlorobenzene degradation rates, like their fluorinated counterparts, decreased with increasing halogen substitution. In contrast to the polyfluorobenzenes though, removal of chlorine substituents was sterically driven. All monohalobenzenes were degraded at similar rates; however, when two carbon-halogen bonds were in direct intramolecular competition, the weaker bond was broken first. Differences in sorption affinities of the substrates are suggested to play a major role in determining the relative rates of transformation of halobenzenes by Rh/Al₂O₃ and H ₂.