Engineering Pt@MnOx/γ-Al2O3 catalyst with enhanced Pt-MnOx interface to boost plasma catalytic oxidation of o-xylene

Plasma catalysis technology is suitable for the emission control of low concentration volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but the energy cost and complete oxidation are the bottleneck for its application. Herein, MnOx/γ-Al2O3 catalysts incorporated with small amounts of Pt nano particles were designed for plasma catalytic oxidation of o-xylene which is one typical kind of VOCs from paint industry. A dielectric barrier discharge reactor installed with Pt0.1Mn6/γ-Al2O3 catalyst can decompose 90% o-xylene oxidation with 90% CO2 selectivity at an energy density of 211 J/L and a reaction temperature of 150 °C, while only 29% o-xylene conversion and 5% CO2 selectivity were obtained without discharges under the same reaction condition. The energy cost is as high as 12.3 g/kWh which is reached top level at the same VOCs concentration. The excellent performance of [email protected]/γ-Al2O3 catalyst is due to the synergistic effect of Pt nano particles and MnOx, which promoted the activation of O2 and the complete oxidation to CO2 of by-products.