Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2026, Vol. 81: 97-123.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(25)64891-1

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Advances in metal oxide catalysts for efficient VOCs oxidation: Synthesis strategy and catalytic mechanism

Fan Danga, Chunli Aia, Chi Maa, Zeyu Jianga(), Jicheng Liua, Mingjiao Tiana, Mingzhuo Zhangb, Chi Hea,c()   

  1. a State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, China
    b Department of Mechanical Engineering (International Class of 3D Printing), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, China
    c National Engineering Laboratory for VOCs Pollution Control Material & Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China
  • Received:2025-06-11 Accepted:2025-09-04 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2025-12-26
  • Contact: *E-mail: jiangzeyu@xjtu.edu.cn (Z. Jiang),chi_he@xjtu.edu.cn (C. He).
  • About author:Zeyu Jiang (State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University) received his Ph.D degree in 2022 from Xi'an Jiaotong University. At the end of 2022, he joined the faculty of Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University. His research interests currently focus on catalytic oxidation and high-value utilization of volatile organic compounds, methanol/ethanol dry-reforming, and CO2 hydrogenation. He has coauthored more than 50 peer-reviewed papers, and authorized 12 patents.
    Chi He (State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University) received his Ph.D degree in 2010 from Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). His research interests currently focus on environmental catalysis, atmospheric pollution control/resource utilization chemistry, nano functional materials, heterogeneous thermal/electro-catalysis, fundamental and applied technology on solid waste utilization. He has coauthored more than 200 peer-reviewed papers with citation over 16000, and authorized 52 patents.
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(22406146);National Natural Science Foundation of China(22276145);National Natural Science Foundation of China(22476157);National Key R&D Program of China(2022YFB4101500);China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2023M732783)

Abstract:

The severe hazard of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) makes their decomposition technology a key topic research. Catalytic oxidation is an efficient and environmentally friendly strategy for removing VOCs. The metal oxide catalysts dominate VOCs oxidation reactions, owing to their cost-effectiveness, robust redox properties, tunable crystal structures, and excellent operational stability. Thus, designing high-performance metal oxide catalysts is important. This review systematically summarized the recent advances in constructing highly efficient active metal oxides, with emphasis on representative preparation method, the structure performance relationship, and the reaction mechanism of different types VOCs. Finally, the remaining challenges for creating metal oxide catalysts in practical applications are discussed.

Key words: Metal oxide catalysts, Volatile organic compounds oxidation, Synthesis strategy, Structure modulation, Reaction mechanism