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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), notorious for triggering atmospheric ozone and secondary organic aerosols, have escalated into a global environmental crisis demanding urgent remediation. While catalytic oxidation dominates VOCs elimination technologies, reliance on noble metal catalysts suffers from intrinsic drawbacks including resource scarcity and deactivation susceptibility, driving an imperative shift toward non-precious alternatives. This review spotlights oxygen vacancy engineering in transition metal oxides (e.g., Co 3 O 4 , MnO 2 , CeO 2 -based systems) as a revolutionary lever to break the activity-stability-cost trilemma. Unlike noble metals where surface reactions dominate, oxygen vacancies in non-precious matrices fundamentally reconfigure catalytic paradigms through some synergistic effects. Despite significant breakthroughs, a critical challenge remains in simultaneously achieving a high density of oxygen vacancies and maintaining structural stability, especially under the harsh conditions typical of industrial exhaust streams. Forward-looking strategies propose vacancy gradient architectures, dual-anion vacancy engineering, and digital twin-assisted defect optimization as keys to unlock the full potential of non-precious metal catalysts, paving the way for carbon–neutral VOCs purification systems.
Wang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.