Mesoporous SmMnO3/CuMnO catalyst for photothermal synergistic degradation of gaseous toluene

Abstract Mesoporous SmMnO3/CuMnOx catalyst was prepared by a two-step method using flaky CuMnOx with high specific surface and excellent catalytic ability as the carrier, which was further applied to photothermal synergistic degradation of gaseous toluene. Quantitative analysis of O2-TPD and H2-TPR showed that SmMnO3/CuMnOx exhibited abundant of the surface oxygen species and oxygen vacancies content, which enabled it to convert free oxygen to lattice oxygen more quickly during the reaction, and thus improving the reaction process. I-t and photoluminescence experiments demonstrated the improvement of photogenerated electron and hole separation ability of SmMnO3/CuMnOx catalyst. UV–Vis analysis manifested the full spectral range of absorption. XPS analysis verified the unequal positions of valence band of the two materials, which can facilitate the separation of photogenerated electrons from holes and improve the ability of better electron transfer. SmMnO3/CuMnOx catalyst has higher adsorbed oxygen content and light absorption capacity, which is beneficial to the catalytic oxidation. In situ DRIFTs proved that the oxidation reaction on the catalyst followed the Mars-van Krevelen redox cycle. The VOCs test found that SmMnO3/CuMnOx composite catalyst is with lower onset reaction temperature (T90 = 190 °C, T90, corresponding to 90% conversion) and good mineralization (100% at 275 °C).