The construction of highly active catalysts presents
great prospects,
while it is a challenge for peroxide activation in advanced oxidation
processes (AOPs). Herein, we facilely developed ultrafine Co clusters
confined in mesoporous silica nanospheres containing N-doped carbon
(NC) dots (termed as Co/NC@mSiO2) via a double-confinement
strategy. Compared with the unconfined counterpart, Co/NC@mSiO2 exhibited unprecedented catalytic activity and durability
for removal of various organic pollutants even in extremely acidic
and alkaline environments (pH from 2 to 11) with very low Co ion leaching.
Experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations proved
that Co/NC@mSiO2 possessed strong peroxymonosulphate (PMS)
adsorption and charge transfer capability, enabling the efficient
O–O bond dissociation of PMS to HO• and SO4
•– radicals. The strong interaction
between Co clusters and mSiO2 containing NC dots contributed
to excellent pollutant degradation performances by optimizing the
electronic structures of Co clusters. This work represents a fundamental
breakthrough in the design and understanding of the double-confined
catalysts for peroxide activation.
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