Environmental catalysts advance focused on lattice oxygen for the decomposition of harmful organic compounds

The recent industrial growth has made our lives more comfortable; however, it has led to an increase in the concentration of harmful compounds, such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (e.g., toluene), and phenolic compounds (e.g., phenol and cresol), in the environment. Catalytic oxidation using environmental catalysts is an important method for the removal of harmful compounds. To date, novel environmental catalysts have been developed from unique concepts based on solid-state ionics. In particular, the oxygen supply ability of a promoter can supply active oxygen from inside the lattice to the catalytically active site. Our catalysts exhibited high activity for the oxidation of harmful chemicals under moderate conditions in both the gaseous and liquid phases compared to conventional catalysts. This short review article describes our concepts of material design and our novel catalysts (ceria–zirconia (CeO2–ZrO2), apatite-type lanthanum silicate (La10Si6O27), and lanthanum oxyfluoride (LaOF) based catalysts).