MnO2-decorated N-doped carbon nanotube with boosted activity for low-temperature oxidation of formaldehyde

Shuai Peng; Xixian Yang; James Strong; Binoy Sarkar; Qiang Jiang; Feng Peng; Defei Liu; Hailong Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122750

MnO₂-decorated N-doped carbon nanotube with boosted activity for low-temperature oxidation of formaldehyde

J Hazard Mater. 2020 Sep 5:396:122750. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122750. Epub 2020 Apr 19.

Authors

Shuai Peng¹, Xixian Yang², James Strong³, Binoy Sarkar⁴, Qiang Jiang⁵, Feng Peng⁶, Defei Liu⁷, Hailong Wang⁸

Affiliations

¹ Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Clean Production and High Value Utilization of Bio-Based Textile Materials, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, 430073, China.
² School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, China. Electronic address: yangxixian@yeah.net.
³ School of Biology and Environmental Science, Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2432, 2 George St, Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia.
⁴ Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510000, China.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510000, China.
⁷ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, China.
⁸ Biochar Engineering Technology Research Center of Guangdong Province, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong 528000, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Contamination Bioremediation of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang A&F University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311300, China. Electronic address: hailong.wang@fosu.edu.cn.

PMID: 32339880
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122750

Abstract

Low-temperature oxidative degradation of formaldehyde (HCHO) using non-noble metal catalysts is challenging. Herein, novel manganese dioxide (MnO₂)/N-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNT) composites were prepared with varying MnO₂ content. The surface properties and morphologies were analyzed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Comparing with MnO₂/carbon nanotubes (CNTs) catalyst, the 40% MnO₂/NCNT exhibited much better activity and selectivity for HCHO oxidation, mineralizing 95% of HCHO (at 100 ppm) into CO₂ at 30 °C at a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 30,000 mL h^-1 g^-1. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation was used to analyze the difference in the catalytic activity of MnO₂ with CNTs and NCNT carrier. It was confirmed that the oxygen on NCNT was more active than CNTs, which facilitated the regeneration of MnO₂. This resulted in remarkably boosted activity for HCHO oxidation. The present work thus exploited an inexpensive approach to enhance the catalytic activity of transition metal oxides via depositing them on a suitable support.

Keywords: Manganese dioxide; catalytic oxidation; formaldehyde removal; non-noble metal catalyst; oxidative degradation.