Surface-Confined Destruction of Pollutants with H₂O₂ Assistance over Cu⁰@CuO_x-N-Graphitic Carbon Suspensions

Abstract

High energy consumption is a serious problem for advanced oxidation processes to eliminate refractory organic pollutants in wastewater. Herein, a surface-confined reaction was developed to destruct bisphenol A and so on pollutants in the Cu 0 @CuO xencapsulated nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon (Cu 0 @CuO x -NC) airsaturated aqueous suspension with a little H 2 O 2 consumption. Based on different measurements and density functional theory calculations, the electron-rich around Cu species and the electron-poor around graphitic carbon were produced by Cu−π interactions from Cu−N and Cu−O− C coordinate bonds on Cu 0 @CuO x -NC. The pollutants, intermediates, and hydroxyl (OH − ) were limited at the electron-poor area, being adsorbed to donate electrons producing surface cleavage of organics and, and • OH were confined at the electron-rich area, capturing electrons to form O 2•− , • OH, H 2 O 2 , and OH − , respectively. The surface-adsorbed OH − and O 2 were the main driving force to greatly inhibit the H 2 O 2 consumption, converting the destruction pollutants into alkane with a little bit oxidation from radicals in solution. Our findings provide a novel technology for high-concentration organic wastewater treatment with a lower energy input.