Enhanced catalytic decomposition of formaldehyde in low temperature and dry environment over silicate-decorated titania supported sodium-stabilized platinum catalyst

Development of the environment-tolerant catalyst can contribute to pollutant treatment in extreme environment. In the present work, precursor of the silicate-decorated titania (SiOx-TiO2) was prepared by incorporating silica into hydrothermal synthesis of TiO2 nanowire (TNT). After loading N nanoparticles by impregnation, the as-prepared catalyst (N/SiOx-TiO2) possessed 7.2 times and 13.6 times the HCHO decomposition rate of Pt/TNT and conventional N/TiO2, respectively, at the temperature of 30 degrees C and the relative humidity of similar to 5 %. Structure-performance relationship analyses showed that the excellent catalytic performance of N/SiOx-TiO2 was closely related to the presence of silicate and formation of sodium-stabilized N nanoparticles. The heterogeneously decorated silicate in N/SiOx-TiO2 had the excellent ability of capturing water from environment and even from HCHO decomposition itself. Consequently, the sodium-stabilized N nanoparticles of N/SiOx-TiO2 could be maintained in a wet microenvironment to exhibit the excellent HCHO decomposition performance in low temperature and dry environment.