Electrified catalytic filtration for integrated mitigation of hazardous airborne VOCs and bioaerosols.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and bioaerosols frequently coexist in indoor and industrial air environments, yet their mitigation typically relies on separate chemical oxidation and biological disinfection processes. Here, we demonstrate an electrified catalytic filtration platform based on a modular Joule-heated Pt/porous SiO2-carbon filter for the integrated mitigation of chemical and biological airborne hazards. A conformal porous SiO2 scaffold deposited on carbon paper enhances bioaerosol capture while providing nanostructured anchoring sites for carbothermal shock-synthesized Pt nanoparticles, thereby suppressing thermal sintering during Joule-heating operation. This hierarchical architecture integrates physical bioaerosol interception, thermal bacterial inactivation, and catalytic VOC oxidation within a single electrified filter. Under Joule heating, captured aerosolized Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were completely inactivated at 250 °C, and the benzene-toluene-p-xylene (BTX) mixture reached 90% conversion at 179 °C. The module reached 250 °C at an electrical input of 44.5 W, corresponding to a specific energy consumption of 1.22 kWh Nm-3. It further sustained > 96% BTX conversion for over 270 h, with only limited Pt nanoparticle growth from 2.03 to 2.36 nm. These results highlight Joule-heated Pt/porous SiO2-carbon filters as compact, energy-efficient platforms with potential for scale-up in the integrated control of coexisting VOC and bioaerosol hazards.