A highly durable catalyst based on Co x Mn3–x O4 nanosheets for low-temperature formaldehyde oxidation

Abstract

Cost-effective catalysts for the oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are critical to energy conversion applications and environmental protection. The main bottleneck of this process is the development of an efficient, stable, and cost-effective catalyst that can oxidize HCHO at low temperature. Here, an advanced material consisting of manganese cobalt oxide nanosheet arrays uniformly covered on a carbon textile is successfully fabricated by a simple anodic electrodeposition method combined with post annealing treatment, and can be directly applied as a high-performance catalytic material for HCHO elimination. Benefiting from the increased surface oxygen species and improved redox properties, the as-prepared manganese cobalt oxide nanosheets showed substantially higher catalytic activity for HCHO oxidation. The catalyst completely converted HCHO to CO2 at temperatures as low as 100 °C, and exhibited excellent catalytic stability. Such impressive results are rarely achieved by non-precious metal-based catalysts at such low temperatures.