Unraveling a trade-off between positive effect and poisoning mechanism of soot over low-dose PtCu/CeO2 for simultaneously photothermocatalytic removal of VOCs and soot

It is challenging for simultaneous removal of VOCs and soot as soot would aggravate coke formation, and the lack of a deep understanding of pollutant effect on catalyst textural properties seriously limit its application. Herein, efficiently photothermocatalytic simultaneous removal of VOCs and soot was achieved by optimizing coke resistance and Pt utilization of PtCu/CeO2 through alloy modification and oxygen vacancy engineering. The findings of our combined experimental and computational study on catalytic process unravel a trade-off between positive effect and poisoning mechanism of soot, as follow: the unique photothermal properties and enhanced VOCs adsorption of soot accelerate VOCs degradation, while partially degraded soot passivate surface-active site of PtCu/CeO2 and weaken OH/O2 adsorption, thus suppressing VOCs mineralization. These new insights into the interfacial mechanism will provide a promising strategy to catalytic performance optimization and practical application.