Photocatalytic degradation of surface-coated tourmaline-titanium dioxide for self-cleaning of formaldehyde emitted from furniture

Formaldehyde emission is an intrinsic property derived from aldehyde-based resin that is used in wood-based composites. To reduce formaldehyde emission from plywood, the composite catalyst of tourmaline-titanium dioxide (T-TiO2) was fabricated by the sol-gel method. Furthermore, the impregnated paper loaded with the T-TiO2 composite catalyst was used to decorate the surface of 5-layer poplar plywood. The physicochemical structure, photocatalytic activity of T-TiO2 composite catalyst and its mechanism of degrading gaseous formaldehyde and generating air negative ions were assessed. The results discovered that the synergistic influence of the tourmaline and TiO2 anatase nanocrystals achieved good photodegradation of the gaseous formaldehyde. The neat T(20%)-TiO2 catalyst offered a higher formaldehyde removal efficiency (92.2%) than other catalysts, possessing 800 ions/cm3 of air negative ions concentration after 10-h visible light irradiation. The poplar plywood with a load of 3% T(20%)-TiO2 catalyst can stably induce the degradation formaldehyde into air negative ions with a concentration of 1200 ions/cm3 in visible light. The impregnation process of paper was feasible to be industrialized and the decorated wood-based composites can be widely applied in the furniture industry.