Staggered distribution structure Cu-Mn catalysts for mitigating smoke and gas toxicity in combustion: Unravelling mechanistic insight through operando studies

The integration of flame retardancy and environmental friendliness can be achieved by designing cost-effective, stable, and efficient catalysts to reduce smoke and toxicity during the combustion of polymeric materials. This work reports the development of non-precious metal catalysts for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), which exhibit a significant reduction in smoke and gases toxicity while providing flame retardancy. The use of MgB₂ as a support enables the in-situ growth of highly efficient Cu-Mn based catalysts, resulting in a remarkable 51.5 % decrease in total smoke release and a 49.1 % reduction in peak rate of CO generation of TPU according to cone calorimeter test results. Furthermore, Cu-Mn/MgB₂ demonstrates an impressive 83.1 % reduction in total CO production rate during the steady-state tube furnace test. Additionally, density functional theory is employed to analyze the binding energy between catalysts and TPU as well as the adsorption energy of gases. This elucidates the rational reaction mechanism behind the catalyst and smoke inhibiting process. By combining transition metal oxide catalyzed CO oxidation reaction with polymeric material combustion, this study presents a promising approach for efficient smoke suppression with potential applications.