The catalytic oxidative decomposition of 1,2-dichoroethane was examined over a series of Ce/Zr mixed oxides (CeO 2 , Ce 0.8 Zr 0.2 O 2 , Ce 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 , Ce 0.15 Zr 0.85 O 2 and ZrO 2 ) treated with a 1M aqueous solution of H 2 SO 4 or HNO 3 . After calcination at 550°C, the doped samples were characterised by dynamic thermogravimetry, X-ray diffraction, N 2 -physisorption, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, temperature-programmed desorption of ammonia, adsorption of pyridine followed by Raman spectroscopy and temperature-programmed reduction with hydrogen. A noticeable promotion of activity was found for all sulphated oxides, which was associated with an increase of the total acidity and more particularly with a higher concentration of sites with a moderate/strong acid strength. Also the generation of new Brönsted acid sites was found. Interestingly, sulphation did not lead to a significant loss of surface area (except for sulphated ceria) and redox properties linked to the Ce 4+ /Ce 3+ cycle were not apparently affected. Sulphated Ce 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 and Ce 0.15 Zr 0.85 O 2 samples showed the highest catalytic activity. Hence, the temperatures for DCE removal (in terms of T 50 and T 90 ) were considerably lowered by 80°C (T 50 ) and 120°C (T 90 ). This behaviour evidenced that sulphation was an effective tool to improve the performance of Ce/Zr mixed oxides for chlorinated VOC abatement. In contrast, the activity of the samples modified with nitric acid hardly showed any variation.