Space-confined manganese oxides nanosheets for efficient catalytic decomposition of ozone

Ground-level ozone has long posed a substantial menace to human well-being and the ecological milieu. The widely reported manganese-based catalysts for ozone decomposition still facing the persisting issues encompass inefficiency and instability. To surmount these challenges, we developed a mesoporous silica thin films with perpendicular nanochannels (SBA(⊥)) confined Mn₃O₄ catalyst (Mn₃O₄@SBA(⊥)). Under a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 500,000 mL g^-1 h^-1, the Mn₃O₄@SBA(⊥) catalyst exhibited 100% ozone decomposition efficiency in 5 h and stability across a wide humidity range, which exceed the performance of bulk Mn₃O₄ and Mn₃O₄ confine in commonly reported SBA-15. Rapidly decompose 20 ppm O₃ to a safety level below 100 μg m^-3 in the presence of dust in smog chamber (60 × 60 × 60 cm) was also realized. This prominent catalytic performance can be attributed to the unique confined structure engenders the highly exposed active sites, facilitate the reactant-active sites contact and impeded the water accumulation on the active sites. This work offers new insights into the design of confined structure catalysts for air purification.