ABSTRACT
Catalytic ozone decomposition is of great significance because ozone is toxic substance commonly found or generated in human environments (aircraft cabins, offices with photocopiers, laser printers, sterilizers). Considerable work has been done on ozone decomposition reported in the literature. This review provides a comprehensive summary of this literature, concentrating on analysis of the physicochemical properties, synthesis and catalytic decomposition of the ozone. This is supplemented by review on kinetics and catalyst characterization, which ties together the previously reported results. It has been found that noble metals and oxides of transition metals are the most active substances for ozone decomposition. The high price of precious metals stimulated the use of metal oxide catalyst and particularly the catalysts based on manganese oxide. It has been determined the kinetics of ozone decomposition to be first order. It was discussed a mechanism of the reaction of catalytic ozone decomposition, based on detailed spectroscopic investigations of the catalytic surface, showing the existence of peroxide and superoxide surface intermediates.
