The polyoxometalate H5PV2Mo10O40 (1) is deposited on cotton cloth, polyacrylic fiber, nylon fiber, carbon powder (Ambersorb 572), and the Japanese "self-deodorizing" fabric Smoklin by immersion of these materials in aqueous solutions of 1 followed by evaporation of the water. DRIFT spectra and chemical reactivity indicate that 1 is not damaged during deposition on the materials. More significantly, they catalyze O-2-based oxidations of two representative and common toxics in air, acetaldehyde and 1-propanethiol, in addition to a representative thioether, tetrahydrothiophene. These aerobic oxidations proceed heterogeneously with the substrates in the liquid phase and under unusually mild conditions (mostly ambient temperature and pressure). One representative reaction, CH3CHO + O-2 --> CH3COOH, catalyzed by several 1-fabric materials is examined in some detail. Kinetics, radical scavenging, and other experiments are consistent with the 1-fabric functioning primarily as a radical chain initiator. Surface area measurements and scanning electron microscopy of two representative materials, 1-polyacrylic and 1-Smoklin, before and after deposition of 1 and after catalysis indicate that the fibers are not demonstrably altered by deposition of 1, and that the 1-fabric catalysts are not significantly deactivated by use. In all cases, the surface areas are <0.5 m(2)/g by BET N-2 adsorption, and the deposition morphology is clumps of 1 microcrystals covering <5% of the fiber/cloth surface. Smoklin, designed and specified to be effective at removing the toxic and/or odorous molecules at ambient temperature, does not exhibit significant activity for catalytic O-2 oxidations in our evaluations. In contrast, 1-Smoklin is quite active for all these processes.