Boosting peroxymonosulfate activation by iron-based dual active site for efficient sulfamethoxazole degradation: synergism of Fe and N-doped carbon

Persulfate activation is emerged as an alternative applied in environment remediation, but it is still a great challenge to develop highly active catalysts for efficient degradation of organic pollutants. Herein, a heterogeneous iron-based catalyst with dual-active sites was synthesized by embedding Fe nanoparticles (FeNPs) onto the nitrogen-doped carbon, which was used to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for antibiotics decomposition. The systematic investigation indicated the optimal catalyst exhibited a significant and stable degradation efficiency of sulfamethoxazole (SMX), in which the SMX can be completely removed in 30 min even after 5 cycle tests. Such satisfactory performance was mainly attributed to the successful construction of electron-deficient C centers and electron-rich Fe centers via the short C-Fe bonds. These short C-Fe bonds accelerated electrons to shuttle from SMX molecules to electron-rich Fe centers with a low transmission resistance and short transmission distance, enabling Fe (III) to receive electrons to promote the regeneration of Fe (II) for durable and efficient PMS activation during SMX degradation. Meanwhile, the N-doped defects in the carbon also provided reactive bridges that accelerated the electron transfer between FeNPs and PMS, ensuring the synergistic effects toward Fe (II)/Fe (III) cycle to some extent. The quenching tests and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) indicated O 2 ·− and 1 O 2 were the dominant active species during the SMX decomposition. As a result, this work provides an innovative method to construct a high-performance catalyst to active sulfate for organic contaminant degradation.