Development of carbon-supported hybrid catalyst for clean removal of formaldehyde indoors

A novel hybrid catalyst for a clean removal of formaldehyde indoors with a long lifetime was developed via a deposition of manganese oxide (MnOx) catalysts on a polyacrylonitril-based activated carbon nanofiber (PAN-ACNF) support. The combination of MnOx with PAN-ACNF induced synergic effects on the formaldehyde removal performance; twofold performance improvements were obtained as compared with PAN-ACNF alone not only in dry condition but also in the extremely humid condition at room temperature without an irradiation of the UV light. The two-staged removal process, the adsorption of formaldehyde in the PAN-ACNF micropores followed by the oxidative decomposition by the deposited MnOx nanoparticles, was found to afford the superior formaldehyde removal performance of the developed hybrid catalyst, MnOx@PAN-ACNF.