Air-Exposed Nano-TiO 2 for Rapid and Sustainable Hydrolysis of Gaseous Phthalate Ester: The Remarkable Facet and Humidity Effects

作者：Zhenhui Fan, Xin Jin, Feng Yao, Dingding Wu, Yang Liu, Huan He, Cheng Gu · 发表于：Environmental Science & Technology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1021/acs.est.5c04376 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Extraction and Separation Processes、Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

The semivolatile nature of phthalate esters (PAEs) leads to their frequent detection in indoor air and agricultural plastic greenhouses, raising concerns about potential adverse effects to human health. The development of environmentally sustainable technologies for the degradation of gaseous PAEs presents a significant necessity. Herein, the facet-engineered nano-TiO 2 performed extremely strong catalytic hydrolysis activity toward gaseous dimethyl phthalate (DMP) in ambient air, suggesting a highly efficient and sustainable solution. The hydrolysis mechanism is attributed to bidentate-coordination-enhanced Lewis-acid catalysis regarding significant facet and humidity effects. First, the TiO 2 ’s {001} facet showed the highest catalytic hydrolysis activity under low relative humidity (RH ≤ 33%) conditions, ascribing to its higher surface bidentate Ti–Ti site density. Second, the inhibitory effect of surface water decreased significantly below 40–49% RH, where less than one hydration layer was present on nano-TiO 2, resulting in DMP hydrolysis rates 1–3 orders of magnitude faster than those at RH ≥ 76%. The facet hydroxylation property also affected its catalytic hydrolysis activity. A sequential hydrolysis–photocatalysis approach using facet-engineered nano-TiO 2 was demonstrated to effectively degrade gaseous DMP and its hydrolysis products. This study offers valuable insights for developing sustainable strategies for purifying airborne PAEs through designed nonaqueous surf...