Complete Degradation of Gaseous Methanol over Pt/FeOx Catalysts by Normal Temperature Catalytic Ozonation

Normal temperature catalytic ozonation (NTCO) is a promising yet challenging method for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) because of limited activity of the catalysts at ambient temperature. Here, we report a series of Pt/FeOx catalysts prepared by the co-precipitation method for NTCO of gaseous methanol. All samples were found to be active and among them, the Pt/FeOx-400 (calcined at 400 degrees C) catalyst with a Pt cluster loading of 0.2% exhibited the highest activity, able to completely convert methanol into CO2 and H2O at 30 degrees C. Extensive experimental research suggested that the superior catalytic activity could be attributed to the highly dispersed Pt clusters and an appropriate molar ratio of Pt-0/Pt2+. Furthermore, electron paramagnetic resonance and density functional theory computational studies revealed the mechanism that the Pt/FeOx-400 catalyst could activate O-3 and water effectively to produce hydroxyl radicals responsible for the catalytic oxidation of methanol. The findings of this work may foster the development of technologies for normal temperature abatement of VOCs with low energy consumption.