Room-Temperature Air-Only Catalytic Oxidation of Indoor Volatile Organic Compounds: Mechanistic Insights and Emerging Catalysts

Driven by global urbanization and increasing emphasis on sustainable building practices, indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have emerged as a major environmental and health challenge. This review specifically focuses on room-temperature air-only catalytic oxidation of representative indoor VOCs under a recently matured and highly application-relevant research direction. Recent advances are systematically summarized, highlighting catalyst design strategies, air-phase reaction mechanisms, and performance of noble metal catalysts (NMCs), transition metal oxides (TMOs), bimetallic synergistic catalysts (BSCs), and single-atom catalysts (SACs). Emphasis is placed on thermodynamic feasibility, reaction kinetics, oxidation behavior of non-formaldehyde VOCs, and mechanistic insights associated with SACs interfacial synergy, which enable efficient O2 activation, high selectivity, and operational stability without external oxidants even under high VOC concentrations. This review provides theoretical foundations and technical guidance for VOCs mitigation and supports the advancement of green, low-carbon, and safe indoor air purification strategies worldwide.