Objective Formaldehyde is one of the atmospheric pollutants seriously endangering human health. It not only irritates the eyes nose skin and mucous membranes but also easily induces leukemia and cancer. The catalytic oxidation method has the advantages of low energy consumption no secondary pollution and high degradation efficiency presenting great application potential. The δ-MnO2 catalyst has excellent catalytic performance for formaldehyde degradation yet its stability still needs further improvement. Methods δ-MnO2 was prepared by a simple redox method with KMnO4 as the precursor. The effects of different reducing agents under the condition of double reducing agents on the catalytic oxidation performance of δ-MnO2 for formaldehyde were explored. Characterization techniques such as XRD SEM TEM XPS and EPR were used to analyze the crystal structure morphology and physicochemical properties of δ-MnO2 under different double reducing agent conditions. Results The research results indicated that different double reducing agent conditions could significantly affect the catalytic oxidation performance of δ-MnO2 for formaldehyde. Among them the MnO2 -MET catalyst prepared with isopropanol and methanol as double reducing agents showed the most outstanding catalytic performance. At room temperature the formaldehyde degradation rate could reach 95% and it still remained at 80% after 1 200 minutes of reaction. Conclusion The high content of oxygen vacancies on the surface of MnO2 -MET facilitates the degradation of formaldehyde.