Low-temperature and in-situ regenerable ozone decomposition in aircraft with zeolite-encapsulated manganese-oxo cluster catalyst

Eliminating Ozone (O₃) in aircraft cabin via catalytic decomposition is of vital importance to passenger health and oil tank anti-explosion. However, commercial catalysts work constantly at high temperature and need take-out regeneration after deactivation, causing high energy consumption and tedious maintenance. Herein we attempt to address this issue by developing a manganese-oxo cluster encapsulated zeolite with initial wetness impregnation and microwave drying coupled method. Time-dependent O₃ decomposition tests show that the efficiency on the optimized sample was kept over 95 % for 98 h at low temperature (−5 °C) and high space velocity (720000 h⁻¹), and well reproduced after mild regeneration (180 °C by air for 1 h, the lowest temperature for reversible regeneration of O₃ catalyst reported ever). Combined EXAFTS, XPS, and DFT calculations reveal the mechanism: luxuriant charge transfer path within the [Mn₃O₃]ⁿ⁺ cluster accommodated in FAU supercage facilitates the allocation of electrons released from the rate-controlling step, rendering lower barrier energy and stabilized state of manganese for O₃ decomposition. An application strategy of “cold air direct-processing and periodic in-situ regeneration” was patterned by the robust performance on the washcoated structured catalyst. This work affords new insights for upgrading aircraft O₃ decomposition and presents metal-oxo zeolite as a platform to tailor practical catalysts.