Catalytic Ozonation of Polluter Benzene from −20 to >50 °C with High Conversion Efficiency and Selectivity on Mullite YMn₂O₅

Catalytic decomposition of aromatic polluters at roomtemperaturerepresents a green route for air purification but is currently challengedby the difficulty of generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) on catalysts.Herein, we develop a mullite catalyst YMn2O5 (YMO) with dual active sites of Mn3+ and Mn4+ and use ozone to produce a highly reactive O* upon YMO. Such a strongoxidant species on YMO shows complete removal of benzene from -20to >50 degrees C with a high CO (x) selectivity(>90%) through the generated reactive species O* on the catalystsurface(60 000 mL g(-1) h(-1)). Althoughthe accumulation of water and intermediates gradually lowers the reactionrate after 8 h at 25 degrees C, a simple treatment by ozone purgingor drying in the ambient environment regenerates the catalyst. Importantly,when the temperature increases to 50 degrees C, the catalytic performanceremains 100% conversion without any degradation for 30 h. Experimentsand theoretical calculations show that such a superior performancestems from the unique coordination environment, which ensures highgeneration of ROS and adsorption of aromatics. Mullite's catalyticozonation degradation of total volatile organic compounds (TVOC) isapplied in a home-developed air cleaner, resulting in high efficiencyof benzene removal. This work provides insights into the design ofcatalysts to decompose highly stable organic polluters. To provide a cost-effective technologyto remove VOC pollutantsin the background of carbon neutrality, a mullite catalyst was proposedto decompose VOCs and O-3 synergistically and simultaneouslyat room temperature.