Complete oxidation of formaldehyde at room temperature over an Al-rich Beta zeolite supported platinum catalyst

Abstract For human health and environmental protection, removal of formaldehyde (HCHO) has become a hot topic, and completely catalytic oxidation at room temperature has been identified as one of the efficient routes for solving this problem. Recently, it has been reported that zeolite-supported Pt catalysts are active for HCHO oxidation at low temperatures, but they are still unable to completely oxidize HCHO at room temperature. To enhance the activity, it has been suggested to increase the Pt dispersion and acidic density in the zeolite-supported Pt catalysts. We therefore chose Al-rich Beta as a zeolite support because abundant aluminum species in the zeolite framework are advantageous for increasing acidic density through ion-exchange of protons and for improving Pt metal dispersion through the metal-zeolite interaction by increasing the negative charge of the zeolite framework with positively charged metal ions. As we expected, the Al-rich Beta zeolite supported platinum catalyst is very active, giving complete oxidation of HCHO at room temperature. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the complete oxidation of HCHO at room temperature over a zeolite-supported noble metal catalyst has been realized. In addition to its extraordinary activity, this catalyst is also very stable and selective. The strategy of designing zeolite-supported noble metal catalysts might offer an alternative way to develop highly efficient heterogeneous catalysts for the removal of air pollutants.