Hydroxyl radical reactions with 2-chlorophenol as a model for oxidation in supercritical water

To determine the detailed mechanism of 2-chlorophenol (2-CP) oxidation in supercritical water, both the experiments and theoretical calculations were conducted in this paper. A set of experiments was performed to oxidize 2-CP in supercritical water under temperatures of 380–420 °C, pressure of 25 MPa, residence times of 0–60 s, and H₂O₂ as oxidant. By determining the molar yields of products, the primary single-ring products were identified as chlorohydroquinone, 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP), 2,6-DCP, and 4-CP. The trends for the molar yields of the four products were analyzed at various temperatures and residence times. And built upon the trends, the possible reaction pathways were conjectured. Subsequently, the reaction mechanism was further verified by theoretical calculations, in which density functional theory was adopted as the computational method. The calculated results have well illustrated the experimental results and ascertained the reaction paths we proposed.