Construction of spinel/biochar film/honeycomb monolithic catalyst for photothermal catalytic oxidation of VOCs

Abstract

Photothermal catalytic oxidation emerges as a promising method for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Herein, via sol-gel impregnation method, spinel CuMn₂O₄ was coated on attapulgite honeycombs with integrating biochar (BC) film as the second carrier, using chestnut shell as complexation agent. Various mass ratios of CuMn₂O₄ to chestnut shell was modulated to investigate the catalytic toluene degradation performance. Results indicated that the monolithic CuMn₂O₄/BC/honeycomb catalyst demonstrated superior photothermal catalytic toluene degradation with a low T₉₀ (temperature at 90% degradation) of 263 °C when the mass ratio of CuMn₂O₄ to biomass was 1:4. The addition of BC film substantially increased the honeycomb's specific surface area and improved the photothermal conversion of spinel, leading to enhanced photothermal catalytic activity. This study presents a cost-effective strategy for eliminating industrial VOCs using clay-biomass based monolithic catalyst.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

CuMn₂O₄ / biochar / photothermal catalysis / attapulgite honeycomb / volatile organic compound

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Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51674043), Jiangsu High Institutions Key Basic Research Projects of Natural Science (Grant No. 21KJA430002), Changzhou International Cooperation Project (Grant No. CZ20230018), Foundation of Social Development of Changzhou (Grant No. CE20225063) and International Joint Laboratory of the Jiangsu Education Department.

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