Formaldehyde (HCHO), a typical indoor air pollutant, has the potential to adversely impact human health. Currently, several methods such as adsorption, photo- and thermo-catalysis technologies are used to remove HCHO. However, common adsorbents usually own a weak adsorb ability for indoor low-level HCHO in a short time. And energy for light or heat is needed in the photocatalytic or thermal process. Recently, Sidheswaran et.al synthesized novel manganese oxides (MnOx) powder by co-precipitation of MnSO4 and NaMnO4, which showed activity to eliminate low concentration HCHO at room temperature. However, the process to prepare the catalyst is complex, time-consuming, and introduction of an organic adhesive is needed. Direct synthesis of nanomaterials on solid matrixes is attract-ing increasing interest in terms of engineering applications and synthetic challenges. In this study, we selected polyester fibers made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as solid matrixes and developed a facile in-situ synthetic method to deposit amorphous manganese oxides onto the PET fibers. As-obtained MnOx/PET material showed the high catalytic activity in the oxidation of HCHO at room temperature. CTAB played an important part during the in situ systhesis of MnOx/PET. The SEM images and the photographs of MnOx/PET without/with CTAB showed that MnOx formed in aqueous solution would could uniformly attach on the fibers under the presence of CTAB. HRTEM image and IR data further demonstrate the amorphous structure of MnOx. The activity of MnOx/PET for low-level HCHO removal was tested in a flow-through reactor at room temperature. For the 0.5 mg/m3 HCHO, the HCHO removal ratio was as high as 80%.

Facile in-situ synthesis of amorphous manganese oxides nanosheets on polyester fibers and their application in oxidative decomposition of formaldehyde

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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