Catalytic activity of laundering durable fiber-based manganese dioxide catalyst targeting indoor formaldehyde

Fiber-based MnO2 nanocatalysts show high practical potential for their easy recovery. While significantly reducing specific surface area, catalytic performance, and poor laundering durability hinder their further applications for formaldehyde removal. Here, surface –OH and –COOH on PMIA were finely regulated by varying the plasma treatment durations. –OH plays as a reduction agent to facilitate the production of Mn3+ close to the PMIA surface and thus promote subsequent output of oxygen vacancy (OV). The plasma introduced and –OH oxidated –COOH acted together as multiple binding sites to bridge the MnO2 catalyst and PMIA fiber, which endows the MnO2@PMIA excellent laundering durability evidenced by the almost unchanged catalytic performance targeting formaldehyde even after 20 home laundering cycles. The mechanism of modulation of oxygen vacancy and specific surface area and water fastness by in situ –OH and –COOH on the relevant surfaces is proposed and confirmed by FTIR, XPS, SEM, and BET. MnO2@PMIA-6 demonstrated the highest catalytic activity for the degradation of formaldehyde, up to 95.43 % in 1 h at room temperature. The catalytic activity remained at 90.97 % with only 0.94 % loss of catalyst mass after 20 home laundering cycles.