Formaldehyde-Ozone Battery for the Detoxification of Hazardous Wastes and Electricity Generation.

As two ubiquitous and recalcitrant pollutants, formaldehyde (HCHO) and ozone (O3) pose severe threats to global ecological security and public health. Conventional removal strategies such as physical adsorption and catalytic degradation often suffer from low efficiency, secondary CO2 emission, or high energy consumption. Herein, we report a novel formaldehyde-ozone battery by coupling anodic HCHO oxidation with cathodic O3 reduction reactions, which simultaneously enables the efficient detoxification of hazardous wastes and electricity generation. With nitrogen-doped carbon and CuAg composites as the cathodic and anodic catalysts, the as-fabricated formaldehyde-ozone battery delivers a considerably high open-circuit voltage (OCV) of 1.80 V and a large peak power density of 44.3 mW cm-2. Even in simulated waste streams, a large-scale formaldehyde-ozone battery (25 cm2) achieves conversions of 99.1% HCHO and 99.97% O3. Therefore, this work provides a sustainable and efficient strategy for the removal of HCHO and O3.