Mesoporous Mn-based multi-component metal oxide for fast chemical warfare agent degradation

Abstract

Protection against harmful chemical compounds is a major social concern, especially chemical warfare agents (CWAs) that are easy to synthesize and can cause mass casualties. The metal oxides with large surface area, porous structures, and a large number of active sites have shown outstanding performance for the adsorption and decontamination of CWAs. However, single-component metal oxides show a lower degradation rate for chemical warfare agents. Here, we demonstrate a convenient homogeneous hydrolysis method for the synthesis of mesoporous manganese-based multi-component metal oxides. Our strategy enables Ce or/and Zr to be doped into the δ-MnO2 structure during the forming process, remarkably enlarging the surface area and providing rich active sites for CWA catalysis. The as-synthesized multi-component metal oxides exhibit excellent performance for the CWA degradation. It is surprising to find that the best degree of removal of mustard gas (HD), soman (GD), and the VX nerve agent (VX) is 90.60%, 87.32%, and 100%, respectively, reaction with multi-component samples in 4 h, 2.92-fold increase to HD, 8.28-fold increase to GD, and 1.67-fold increase to VX contrast with undoped δ-MnO2. This work may provide an avenue for developing new generation chemical warfare agent decontamination materials and other catalysts.