Improved oxygen activation over metal–organic-frameworks derived and zinc-modulated Co@NC catalyst for boosting indoor gaseous formaldehyde oxidation at room temperature

Abstract

The indoor low-concentration formaldehyde (HCHO) removal in cobalt-based catalysts is still a “hot potato”. In this work, metal–organic-frameworks (MOF)-derived and Zinc (Zn)-modulated new cobalt nanoparticles catalyst (CZ-Co@NC-800) was designed and prepared. The CZ-Co@NC-800 performed outstanding elimination activities for ~1 ppm HCHO at 25 °C. In the static test condition, it achieves complete HCHO removal in 3 h at a relative humidity (RH) of ~55%. Moreover, 90.18% HCHO removal ratio is held after five recycle tests. In the dynamic test condition, it remains the characteristic to eliminate around 95.89% of HCHO within 8 h under an RH of ~55% and a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of ~150,000 mL·h−1g−1. Such advanced results should be ascribed to large specific surface area bringing about more cobalt active sites; and it is also because residual Zn metal affects the electronic structure of CZ-Co@NC-800 and enhance the surface charge transfer rate, thus the activation and dissociation ability of oxygen is promoted. Besides, a short HCHO reaction path over CZ-Co@NC-800 which was clarified by the In situ DRIFTs is also a reason for excellent catalytic performance. This work represents a crucial addition to expand the family of cobalt-based catalysts for indoor HCHO elimination.