Oxygen vacancy promoted heterogeneous Fenton-like degradation of sulfamethazine by chlorine-incorporated micro zero-valent iron

Herein, we report an oxygen vacancies (OVs)-rich micro zero-valent iron (mZVI) interface for selective and efficient H2O2 degradation by mechanical chloride (Cl) doping. With the contribution of OVs, electron transfer process was sped up due to the charge unbalance of mZVI, and abundant adsorbed ferrous was produced. The resultant Cl-ZVIBM/H2O2 system increased the yield of center dot OH for threefold, without a significant increase in the subordinate reactive oxygen species, and the degradation rate for sulfamethazine was enhanced by 13 folds. The catalytic reactivity of as-prepared material was maintained for more than 230 days in dry air. The performance of as-prepared catalyst to practical water remediation was evaluated, and it demonstrated excellent results. The study shed light to improve the utilization efficiency of H2O2 by an OVs-rich iron-based catalyst using a simple mechanochemistry method of doping halogen elements.

Automated summary

In this study, an oxygen vacancies (OVs)-rich micro zero-valent iron (mZVI) interface with mechanical chloride (Cl) doping was reported for selective and efficient H2O2 degradation. The presence of OVs accelerated electron transfer and produced abundant adsorbed ferrous due to the charge unbalance of mZVI. The Cl-ZVIBM/H2O2 system increased the yield of center dot OH threefold without a significant increase in subordinate reactive oxygen species, and the degradation rate for sulfamethazine was enhanced by 13 folds. The prepared catalyst maintained catalytic reactivity for more than 230 days in dry air. The study demonstrated the promising application of an OVs-rich iron-based catalyst in practical water remediation through a simple mechanochemistry method of doping halogen elements.