Uranium oxide based catalysts have been investigated for the oxidative destruction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to carbon oxides and water. The catalysts have been tested for the destruction of a range of organic compounds at space velocities up to 70 000 h(-1). Destruction efficiencies greater than 99% can be achieved over the appropriate uranium based catalyst in the temperature range 300-450 degrees C. Volatile organic compounds investigated include benzene, butylacetate, cyclohexanone, toluene, methanol, acetylene, butane, chlorobutane and chlorobenzene. The catalysts are thermally stable, destroy low concentrations and mixtures of VOCs and lifetime studies indicate that deactivation during oxidation of chlorinated VOCs did not occur. A temporal analysis of products (TAPs) reactor is used to investigate the mechanism of oxidation of VOCs by uranium oxide catalysts. Studies indicated that VOCs were oxidised directly to carbon oxides on the catalyst surface. A combination of TAP pulse experiments with oxygen present and absent in the gas phase has indicated that the lattice oxygen from the catalyst is responsible for the total oxidation activity. This has been confirmed by studies using isotopically labelled oxygen which indicates that the catalyst operates by a redox mechanism. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.