Electrocatalytic Oxidation for Efficient Toluene Removal with a Catalytic Cu-MnOx/GF Electrode in a Solid-State Electrocatalytic Device

A series of Cu-MnOx/GF catalytic electrodes, with graphite felt (GF) pretreated via microwave modification as the catalyst carrier, were prepared under various hydrothermal conditions and characterized using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), N2 adsorption–desorption, and Raman spectroscopy. The catalytic oxidation activity of catalytic Cu-MnOx/GF electrodes toward toluene was evaluated in an all-solid-state electrocatalytic device under mild operating conditions. The evaluation results demonstrated that the microwave-modified catalytic electrode exhibited high electrocatalytic activity toward toluene oxidation, with Cu-MnOx/700W-GF exhibiting significantly higher catalytic activity, indicating that an increase in catalyst loading capacity can promote the removal of toluene. Only CO2 and CO were detected, with no other intermediates observed in the reaction process. Moreover, the catalytic effect was significantly affected by the relative humidity. The catalytic oxidation of toluene can be fully realized under a certain humidity, indicating that the conversion of H2O to strongly oxidizing ·OH on the catalytic electrode is a key step in this reaction.