Mechanism of ozone-assisted catalytic oxidation of isopropanol over single-atom platinum catalysts at ambient temperature

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have become the major atmospheric pollutants in many countries. To develop more efficient VOCs catalytic oxidation technologies, in-depth study of degradation mechanism of VOCs is necessary and urgent. Although the catalytic degradation of small-molecule VOCs such as methanol and formaldehyde is relatively well known, the degradation mechanism of multi-carbon VOCs is largely unclear. Here we construct a single atom Pt catalyst supported on Na-doped TiO2 (Na-Pt/TiO2) for degrading isopropanol into CO2 and H2O at a temperature as low as 35 °C. We further reveal the promoting effect of Na in the catalyst, the formation process of hydroxyl radicals and, the catalytic degradation mechanism of isopropanol through combination of sophisticated experimental studies and density functional theory (DFT). This work not only devises a new catalyst for the degradation of isopropanol at ambient temperature, but also provides a new insight into the mechanism of catalytic oxidation of multi-carbon VOCs.