Single atom Pd anchored-MnO confined in porous carbon matrix for low-level VOCs removal at room temperature

Abstract

Sustainably removing low-level VOCs at room temperature especially in the presence of water vapor has great demand. Herein, single-atom Pd anchored MnO nanoparticles (Pd/MnO) were confined in the hydrophobic porous carbon matrix. As-synthesized Pd/MnO@C exhibited superior removal capacity for VOCs such as hexanal, pentanal and toluene. Under the WHSV of 450 L/g·h, the 99% removal capacity for 15 ppm hexanal at 30 °C and relative humidity (RH) 50% reached 388.8 mg/g, which was 2.4 times as that of commercial BPL activated carbon. In addition, it exhibited much better regeneration ability at low temperature (105 °C) than activated carbon. In-situ DRIFTS and EPR indicated that water vapor mediated the activation of oxygen to form hydroxyl radicals to decompose VOCs. This paper opens a new way to sustainably remove low-level VOCs at room temperature under humid conditions via the hydrophobic carbon confinement effect and single-atom catalysis.