Low Concentrations Of Formaldehyde Research Articles

SnO2 mesoporous nanoparticle-based gas sensor for highly sensitive and low concentration formaldehyde detection.

Indoor air quality detection, especially formaldehyde (HCHO) detection, is of great importance in practical application. A key limitation of promoting gas-sensing devices is the lack of sensing materials with high sensing sensitivity and selectivity. In this study, SnO2 mesoporous nanoparticles are fabricated by a facile hydrothermal route with a subsequent acid etching process. The prepared samples show high response toward HCHO (133.5, 222.8 for 100 ppm and 200 ppm HCHO, respectively) and short response/recovery time (15/22 s at 10 ppm). The excellent HCHO sensing performance benefits from the comprehensive regulation of the depletion region width, surface area and rich porosity, which is effective for the promotion of surface adsorption and catalyst activity. It is expected that the excellent sensing properties are promising for practical HCHO gas detection.

Ag-promoted Cr/MnO2 catalyst for catalytic oxidation of low-concentration formaldehyde at room temperature.

As one of the significant pollutants in indoor air, formaldehyde (HCHO) has attracted increasing attention due to its negative effects on human health. Thus, to reduce formaldehyde pollution, herein, an Ag-promoted Cr/MnO2 catalyst (Ag/Cr/MnO2) was obtained via a hydrothermal-calcination method, which was employed for the catalytic oxidation of low-concentration indoor HCHO (∼1 ppm) at room temperature. The Ag/Cr/MnO2 catalyst eliminated approximately 98.62% HCHO within 14 h and maintained a high removal efficiency continuously under the dynamic test conditions. Furthermore, the catalyst exhibited good recycling stability and outstanding activity in a humid environment. Different characterization techniques were utilized to determine the physicochemical properties that contribute to improving the catalytic performance. The Ag substance contained metallic Ag (Ag0) as the main component and some Ag2O, and the Ag0 particles provided ample active sites for the catalytic oxidation of HCHO. Besides, the incorporation of Ag increased the reducibility of the catalyst and the content of Mn4+, Cr6+ and oxygen vacancies. The abundant active sites, high reducibility, rich Mn4+, Cr6+, oxygen vacancies, and surface lattice oxygen species, and the powerful interaction between Cr/MnO2 and Ag were the reasons for the splendid catalytic capability for HCHO by the Ag/Cr/MnO2 catalyst. In conclusion, the Ag/Cr/MnO2 catalyst can be a promising catalyst to degrade HCHO with practical application significance.

Research on the elimination of low-concentration formaldehyde by Ag loaded onto Mn/CeO2 catalyst at room temperature.

Formaldehyde (HCHO) is one of the major air pollutants, and its effective removal at room temperature has proven to be a great challenge. In this study, an Ag/Mn/CeO2 catalyst for the catalytic oxidation of low-concentration HCHO at room temperature was prepared by a hydrothermal-calcination method. The removal performance of the Ag/Mn/CeO2 catalyst for HCHO was systematically studied, and its surface chemical properties and microstructure were analyzed. The incorporation of Ag did not change the mesoporous structure of the Mn/CeO2 catalyst but reduced the pore size and specific surface area. The Ag species included metallic Ag as the main component and part of Ag+. The well-dispersed Ag species on the catalyst provided sufficient active sites for the catalytic oxidation of HCHO. The more the Ag active sites, the more the lattice defects and oxygen vacancies generated from the interaction of Ag with Mn/CeO2. Precisely because of this, the Ag/Mn/CeO2 catalyst exhibited high catalytic activity for HCHO at room temperature with a removal efficiency of 96.76% within 22 h, which is 22.91% higher than that of the Mn/CeO2 catalyst. Moreover, the Ag/Mn/CeO2 catalyst showed good cycling stability and the removal efficiency reached 85.77% after five cycles. Therefore, the as-prepared catalyst is an effective and sustainable material that can be used to remove HCHO from actual indoor polluted air. This paper provides ideas for the research and development of efficient catalysts.

One enzyme, many faces: urease is also canatoxin

Ureases catalyze the hydrolysis of urea into carbamate and ammonia. Well-conserved proteins, most plant ureases are hexamers of a single chain subunit, like the most abundant isoform of the jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) urease (JBU). Canatoxin (CNTX) was originally isolated from these seeds as a neurotoxic protein, and later characterized as an isoform of JBU with lower molecular mass and enzyme activity. Inactive CNTX oligomers form upon storage and stabilization of CNTX was achieved by treatment with low concentration of formaldehyde, avoiding its oligomerization. Here, nano-LC-MS/MS-based peptide analysis of CNTX revealed 804 amino acids identical to those of JBU’s sequence (840 amino acids). De novo sequencing of CNTX revealed 15 different peptides containing substitution of amino acid residues, denoting CNTX as a product of a paralog gene of JBU. The MS/MS analysis of formaldehyde-treated CNTX showed that amino acid residues located at the trimer–trimer interface of JBU’s hexamer were modified. The data confirmed that CNTX is an isoform of JBU and elucidated that stabilization by formaldehyde treatment occurs by modification of amino acids at the protein’s surface that prevents the formation of the hexamer and of higher molecular mass inactive aggregates. HIGHLIGHTS Canatoxin (CNTX) is an isoform of jack bean urease (JBU, hexamer of 90 kDa chains) MS/MS sequencing of CNTX showed 804 amino acids identical in JBU (840 residues) Formaldehyde treatment of CNTX stabilizes its toxicity and avoids oligomerization Modified amino acid residues in CNTX are at the trimer–trimer interface of JBU Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Ozone catalytic oxidation of low-concentration formaldehyde over ternary Mn-Ce-Ni oxide catalysts modified with FeOx.

Manganese oxide-based catalysts have attracted extensive attention due to their relatively low cost and remarkable performance for removing VOCs. In this research, we used the Pechini method to synthesize manganese-cerium-nickel ternary oxide catalysts (MCN) and evaluated the effectiveness of catalytic destruction of formaldehyde (HCHO) and ozone at room temperature. FeOx prepared by the impregnation method was applied to modify the catalyst. After FeOx treatment, the catalyst represented the best performance on both HCHO destruction and ozone decomposition under dry conditions and exhibited excellent water vapor resistance.The as-prepared catalystswere next characterized via H2-temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), temperature programmed desorption of O2 (O2-TPD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the results demonstrated that addition of FeOx increased Mn3+ and Ce3+ concentrations, oxygen vacancies and surface lattice oxygen species, facilitated adsorption, and redox properties. Based on the results of in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectrometry (DRIFTS), possible mechanisms of ozone catalytic oxidation of HCHO were proposed. Overall, the ternary mixed-oxide catalyst developed in this study holds great promise for HCHO and ozone decomposition in the indoor environment.

UV-activated efficient formaldehyde gas sensor based on cauliflower-like graphene-modified In-doped ZnO at room temperature

So far, for photoelectric metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors, it is a huge bottleneck to achieve high response performance and low detection limit of formaldehyde at room temperature. This work introduced the synthesis of cauliflower-like graphene-modified In-doped ZnO (GR/In-ZnO) composites via a facile one-pot method with a large comparative surface area for low-concentration formaldehyde sensing at room temperature. GR/In-ZnO-300 showed the highest response to 10 ppm formaldehyde, up to 1891%, which was 12 times that of In-ZnO-300. In addition, the theoretical detection limit of GR/In-ZnO-300 was as low as 13 ppb, and the response at this concentration was 137%. Through the characterization of Surface Photovoltage (SPV), Transient Photovoltage (TPV), Surface Photocurrent (SPC), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and nitrogen gas adsorption isotherms, good formaldehyde sensing performance of GR/In-ZnO-300 was attributed to the excellent separation and transmission capacity of photogenerated carriers, the high specific surface area (109.2 m2/g), and abundant oxygen defects on the surface. This work provides a feasible strategy for the design of low-concentration formaldehyde sensing materials with a rapid response at room temperature.

The CeO2–TiO2 composite material for improving response speed of detecting low-concentration formaldehyde

The CeO2–TiO2 composite material for improving response speed of detecting low-concentration formaldehyde

Rapid Adsorption of Indoor Low-Concentration Formaldehyde by β-Cyclodextrin-Based Porous Organic Polymers

Rapid Adsorption of Indoor Low-Concentration Formaldehyde by β-Cyclodextrin-Based Porous Organic Polymers

PtCu-SnO2 nanocomposites for ultrasensitive and rapid ultra-low formaldehyde sensing

SnO 2 nanospheres with diameters of 30∼50 nm and Pt x Cu 1- x bimetallic nanoparticles with sizes of approximately 10 nm were synthesized via hydrothermal and solvothermal methods, respectively. The Pt x Cu 1- x bimetallic nanoparticles were impregnated on the surface of the SnO 2 spheres to form Pt x Cu 1- x -SnO 2 nanocomposites. By varying the atomic ratios between platinum (Pt) and copper (Cu), we found that Pt 0.75 Cu 0.25 -SnO 2 , with a large specific surface area of 89.21 m 2 /g, enabled the selective and accurate detection of low-concentration formaldehyde compared to other metal-deposited samples and pure SnO 2 . The response value of Pt 0.75 Cu 0.25 -SnO 2 to 500 × 10 −9 formaldehyde was approximately 20 at an operating temperature of 160 ℃ with an extremely high-speed response (15 s). The porous structures with large specific surface areas, as well as the improved catalytic effects of Pt 0.75 Cu 0.25 , comprehensively contributed to the enhanced sensing performance towards formaldehyde.

Controllable fabrication of nanofibrillated cellulose supported HKUST-1 hierarchically porous membranes for highly efficient removal of formaldehyde in air

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) has presented great potential as supports for functional membrane materials owing to its unique advantages. In this work, NFC-supported MOF hierarchically porous membranes were synthesized by anchoring HKUST-1 (copper 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate open-framework) on NFC membrane through a green DMF-free (N,N-Dimethylformamide) method at room temperature and afterward, the as-prepared composite membrane was used to remove formaldehyde from the air. The addition of HKUST-1 particles significantly increased the specific surface area of NFC membrane without affecting the NFC properties. Meanwhile, the nucleation and growth process of HKUST-1 on the NFC membrane could be effectively regulated, which further controlled the morphology of HKUST-1 as well as the anchored position of HKUST-1. When HKUST-1 was anchored on the interior and surface of the membrane, HKUST-1 reduced the compactness of the arrangement between fibers, which resulted in a hierarchical porous structure and then exposed more active adsorption sites of HKUST-1 particles. Thus, the flexible composite membranes exhibited effective formaldehyde adsorption from a low formaldehyde concentration environment (3.0 mg/m3). Under the optimum conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity of the HKUST-1@NFC-1 for formaldehyde reached 378.09 mg/g (based on HKUST-1 wt), which was considerably higher than support-free HKUST-1 powders. Consequently, the present work offers a green and controllable route to prepare NFC-supported MOF composite membranes with highly effective formaldehyde adsorption capacity and thus provides a promising option for NFC application as a flexible adsorbent support.

Facile Hydrothermal Synthesis of SnO2 Nanoflowers for Low-Concentration Formaldehyde Detection.

In this work, SnO2 nanoflowers were prepared by a simple one-step hydrothermal process. The morphology and structure of SnO2 nanoflowers were characterized by SEM, TEM, Raman spectroscopy, and XRD, which demonstrated the good crystallinity of the SnO2 tetrahedron structure of the as-synthesized materials. In addition, the sensing properties of SnO2 nanoflowers were studied in detail. It was found that the SnO2 nanoflower-based gas sensor exhibits excellent gas response (9.2 to 120 ppm), fast response and recovery (2/15 s to 6 ppm), good linearity of correlation between response (S) vs. concentration (C) (lgS = 0.505 lgC − 0.147, R2 = 0.9863), superb repeatability, and selectivity at 300 °C. The outstanding performance can also be attributed to the high specific surface area ratio and size of SnO2 nanoflowers close to the thickness of the electron depletion layer that can provide abundant active sites, promote the rate of interaction, and make it easier for gas molecules to diffuse into the interior of the material. Therefore, SnO2 nanoflowers can be an ideal sensing material for real-time monitoring of low-concentration HCHO.

Study of manganese–cerium composite oxide catalysed oxidation for low concentration formaldehyde at room temperature

Catalytic oxidation at room temperature is a promising alternative approach for indoor formaldehyde elimination. However, the development of non-precious metal room temperature catalysts is still highly challenging. In this study, manganese-cerium composite oxides (MC) were developed and optimized. The removal performance of low concentrations of formaldehyde at room temperature was comprehensively evaluated. Formaldehyde removal was achieved with MC under dark at a level comparable to that of the commercial P25 catalyst. The removal efficiency of 90.9% in 24 h at room temperature was obtained for the initial formaldehyde concentration of 1.2 ± 0.1 ppm. Using electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, free radicals were confirmed to play a key role in formaldehyde degradation on MC. Formate was detected as the main intermediate product by in situ DRIFTs, and the mechanism of MC catalytic oxidation at room temperature was deduced.

Hydrogenated Amorphous Titania with Engineered Surface Oxygen Vacancy for Efficient Formaldehyde and Dye Removals under Visible-Light Irradiation.

Hydrogenated crystalized TiO2−x with oxygen vacant (OV) doping has attracted considerable attraction, owing to its impressive photoactivity. However, amorphous TiO2, as a common allotrope of titania, is ignored as a hydrogenated templet. In this work, hydrogenated amorphous TiO2−x (HAm-TiO2−x) with engineered surface OV and high surface area (176.7 cm2 g−1) was first prepared using a unique liquid plasma hydrogenation strategy. In HAm-TiO2−x, we found that OV was energetically retained in the subsurface region; in particular, the subsurface OV-induced energy level preferred to remain under the conduction band (0.5 eV) to form a conduction band tail and deep trap states, resulting in a narrow bandgap (2.36 eV). With the benefits of abundant light absorption and efficient photocarrier transportation, HAm-TiO2−x coated glass has demonstrated superior visible-light-driven self-cleaning performances. To investigate its formaldehyde photodegradation under harsh indoor conditions, HAm-TiO2−x was used to decompose low-concentration formaldehyde (~0.6 ppm) with weak-visible light (λ = 600 nm, power density = 0.136 mW/cm2). Thus, HAm-TiO2−x achieved high quantum efficiency of 3 × 10−6 molecules/photon and photoactivity of 92.6%. The adsorption capabilities of O2 (−1.42 eV) and HCHO (−1.58 eV) in HAm-TiO2−x are both largely promoted in the presence of subsurface OV. The surface reaction pathway and formaldehyde decomposition mechanism over HAm-TiO2−x were finally clarified. This work opened a promising way to fabricate hydrogenated amorphous photocatalysts, which could contribute to visible-light-driven photocatalytic environmental applications.

Enhanced ppb-level formaldehyde sensing performance over Pt deposited SnO2 nanospheres

Formaldehyde is one of the most serious threats to human health in modern interior decoration. Thereby, online detection of indoor formaldehyde concentration has become an urgent problem. In this work, the Pt deposited porous SnO2 nanospheres were synthesized as the formaldehyde sensing materials, which were prepared by hydrothermal and chemical reduction methods. The diameter of as-synthesized Pt-SnO2 were centered in the range of 30–50 nm, with the dominant pore size of ~10 nm and the specific surface area of 89.79 m2 g−1, which provided a raft of passages and active sites for gas molecules to diffuse and interact mutually. Moreover, the experimental results demonstrated that the 1 wt.% Pt-SnO2 exhibited higher response (16.03), high-speed response time (9 s) and outstanding selectivity with exposure to low-concentration formaldehyde compared with original SnO2. The porous structures and catalytic effect of Pt nanoparticles were jointly responsible for the enhancement of SnO2 on sensing performance towards formaldehyde.

Indoor air quality improvement and purification by atmospheric pressure Non-Thermal Plasma (NTP)

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) is a promising technology for the improvement of indoor air quality (IAQ) by removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) through advanced oxidation process (AOP). In this paper, authors developed a laboratory scale dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor which generates atmospheric NTP to study the removal of low-concentration formaldehyde (HCHO), a typical indoor air VOC in the built environment associated with cancer and leukemia, under different processing conditions. Strong ionization NTP was generated between the DBD electrodes by a pulse power zero-voltage switching flyback transformer (ZVS-FBT), which caused ionization of air molecules leading to active species formation to convert HCHO into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapor (H2O). The impact of key electrical and physical processing parameters i.e. discharge power (P), initial concentration (Cin), flow rate (F), and relative humidity (RH) which affect the formaldehyde removal efficiency (ɳ) were studied to determine optimum conditions. Results show that, the correlation coefficient (R2) of removal efficiency dependence on the processing parameters follow the order R2 (F) = 0.99 > R2 (RH) = 0.96, > R2 (Cin) = 0.94 > R2 (P) = 0.93. The removal efficiency reached 99% under the optimum conditions of P = 0.6 W, Cin = 0.1 ppm, F = 0.2 m3/h, and RH = 65% with no secondary pollution. The study provided a theoretical and experimental basis for the application of DBD plasma for air purification in the built environment.

A p-n Heterojunction Based Pd/PdO@ZnO Organic Frameworks for High-Sensitivity Room-Temperature Formaldehyde Gas Sensor.

As formaldehyde is an extremely toxic volatile organic pollutant, a highly sensitive and selective gas sensor for low-concentration formaldehyde monitoring is of great importance. Herein, metal-organic framework (MOF) derived Pd/PdO@ZnO porous nanostructures were synthesized through hydrothermal method followed by calcination processes. Specifically, porous Pd/PdO@ZnO nanomaterials with large surfaces were synthesized using MOFs as sacrificial templates. During the calcination procedure, an optimized temperature of 500°C was used to form a stable structure. More importantly, intensive PdO@ZnO inside the material and composite interface provides lots of p-n heterojunction to efficiently manipulate room temperature sensing performance. As the height of the energy barrier at the junction of PdO@ZnO exponentially influences the sensor resistance, the Pd/PdO@ZnO nanomaterials exhibit high sensitivity (38.57% for 100 ppm) at room temperature for 1-ppm formaldehyde with satisfactory selectivity towards (ammonia, acetone, methanol, and IPA). Besides, due to the catalytic effect of Pd and PdO, the adsorption and desorption of the gas molecules are accelerated, and the response and recovery time is as small as 256 and 264 s, respectively. Therefore, this MOF-driven strategy can prepare metal oxide composites with high surface area, well-defined morphology, and satisfactory room-temperature formaldehyde gas sensing performance for indoor air quality control.

Conjugated microporous poly(aniline)s for removal of low-concentration formaldehyde

Removal of indoor formaldehyde is important but challenging due to the very low concentration. Here, we showed the applicability of a new class of conjugated microporous poly(aniline)s (CMPAs) in this formaldehyde capture. The unique properties of rich ultramicroporosity and benzenoid amine (–NH–) groups made the resulting CMPAs ideal platforms for the efficient low-concentration formaldehyde adsorption, through the interaction between benzenoid amine groups and formaldehyde via Mannich reaction and H-bond in the ultramicropore. They therefore exhibited ultrafast adsorption, receiving > 80% removal efficiency for ca 0.7 ppm formaldehyde within 60 min, and benchmarking storage capacity, achieving ca. 2679.68 mg·g−1 for CMPA-2. Our CMPAs also worked well in a self-assembled air clean unit, keeping kinetically reducing average 98% of formaldehyde after treatment of 4000 BV polluted air (with ca. 25 ppm formaldehyde) without break-through. Outcomes highlighted the potential of CMPAs for the clean-up of airborne formaldehyde for human health protection in next generation.

Real-time Raman analysis of the hydrolysis of formaldehyde oligomers for enhanced collagen fixation

Formaldehyde (FA) is widely applied as a fixative for proteins such as collagen. Current studies have confirmed that the reversible oligomer-to-monomer equilibrium of FA in aqueous solution and the proportion of FA monomer is a significant factor affecting tissue fixation. Since the hydrolysis of FA oligomers is a dynamic process affected jointly by different factors, its real time monitoring has proved to be challenging. In this work, by utilizing the well-established Raman technique as an analytical platform, we identified the factors affecting the hydrolysis of FA oligomers by rationally examining the νs (OCO) and νas (OCO) modes with varying conditions, such as time, pH, temperature, and FA concentration. The optimized conditions of the highest hydrolysis rate of oligomers into monomers for fixation on collagen and tissues have been found to be relatively low FA concentration (≤5%) in phosphate-buffered saline at pH 9.0 in room temperature. In order to compare the fixation quality of the optimized conditions to that of the conventional conditions used by current medical practices (4% FA concentration in tap water under room temperature), Raman spectroscopy and chemical derivatization methods with o-phthalaldehyde and fluorescent probe FAP-1 have been investigated, and our results revealed that the FA molecules under our optimized conditions have reacted with at least 15% more amino groups within collagen compared to those under the conventional conditions mentioned above. This study provides direct evidence of the FA equilibrium in solution by Raman spectroscopy, which could be applied for the optimal use of FA in medicine, even at an industrial scale.

Hydrophobic metal organic framework for enhancing performance of acoustic wave formaldehyde sensor based on polyethyleneimine and bacterial cellulose nanofilms

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) formaldehyde gas sensor was fabricated on a 42° 75′ ST-cut quartz substrate, with a composite sensing layer of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-8 on polyethyleneimine (PEI)/bacterial cellulose (BC) nanofilms. The addition of snowflake-like ZIF-8 structure on the PEI/BC sensitive film significantly improves the hydrophobicity of the SAW sensor and increases its sensitivity to formaldehyde gas. It also significantly increases surface roughness of the sensitive film. The hydrophobic nature of ZIF-8 prevents water molecules from entering into the internal pores of the BC film, thereby avoiding a significant mass loading caused by humidity when the sensor is used to detect low-concentration formaldehyde gas. The Zn2+ sites at the surface of ZIF-8 improves the sensor's response to formaldehyde gas through enhanced physical adsorptions of gas molecules. Experimental results show that the ZIF-8@PEI/BC SAW sensor has a response (e.g., frequency shift) of 40.3 kHz to 10 ppm formaldehyde gas at 25 °C and 30% relative humidity (RH). When the relative humidity is increased from 30 to 93%, the response of the sensor only varies ~ 5%, and the change in response is negligible at medium humidity levels (~ 50 to 60% RH).

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

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.