Fully Amorphous Cerium/Carbon-Doped Manganese Oxides with Tailor-Made Pore and Electronic Properties for Superior Catalytic Ozone Decomposition

Jiaren Wang^1,2, Lei Wu^1,2,3, Xingchen Guo^1,2, Jinqiang Sun^1,2, Wei Teng⁴, Xiaoning Wang^1,2, Winston Duo Wu^1,2, Zhangxiong Wu^1,2（吴张雄）*

¹Particle Engineering Laboratory, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, College of Chemistry Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou City, Jiangsu 2151213, P. R. China

²State Key Laboratory of Bioinspired Interfacial Materials Science, College of Chemistry Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou City, Jiangsu 2151213, P. R. China

³School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Fuyang Normal University, Fuyang 236037, P. R. China

⁴State Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Green Resource Recycling, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, P. R. China

Environ. Sci. Technol. 2025, 59, 19047–19059

Abstract: Metal oxides are promising for catalytic ozone (O₃) decomposition to tackle the O₃ pollution problem. However, reported metal oxides for O₃ decomposition are predominantly crystalline and often suffer from low active site exposure and easy deactivation. Here, fully amorphous Ce/C-doped Mn₂O₃ materials with tailor-made macro-mesopores and electronic properties are developed. The synthesis is enabled by forming amorphous metal–organic coordination composites between histidine and atomically mixed metal ions, which are thermally converted to hierarchically porous amorphous Mn₂O₃ due to the Ce/C doping in the Mn₂O₃ skeleton and the self-bubbling and reductive roles of histidine. They demonstrate superior activity and stability in O₃ decomposition under wide relative humidity (RH, 0–80%), capable of completely eliminating 50 ppm O₃ for >25 h at 60% RH and a high velocity of 600 L g^–1 h^–1. Spectroscopic and theoretical studies unravel the structure–performance correlation and reaction mechanism. The superior performance originates from the amorphous Mn₂O₃ providing rich Mn³⁺ sites and a high surface area for O₃ adsorption and activation, the Ce/C doping for promoting suitable electron transfer and inhibiting H₂O and O₂^2– accumulation, and the macro-mesopore structure for enhancing mass transfer and weakening H₂O adsorption and condensation.

Article information: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c05865