Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2024, Vol. 59: 15-37.DOI: 10.1016/S1872-2067(23)64611-X

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Single-atom iron catalysts for peroxymonosulfate-based advanced oxidation processes: Coordination structure versus reactive species

Cheng Chenga,b, Wei Renb, Hui Zhanga,*(), Xiaoguang Duanb,*(), Shaobin Wangb,*()   

  1. aDepartment of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, Hubei, China
    bSchool of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
  • Received:2023-12-30 Accepted:2024-01-23 Online:2024-04-18 Published:2024-04-15
  • Contact: *E-mail: eeng@whu.edu.cn (H. Zhang), xiaoguang.duan@adelaide.edu.au (X. Duan), shaobin.wang@adelaide.edu.au (S.Wang).
  • About author:Hui Zhang (School of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University) received his Ph.D. degree from South China University of Technology (China) in 1995. Since then, he has been working at Wuhan University and is currently a professor. His research interests focus on environmental chemistry, environmental catalysis and advanced oxidation technologies for environmental remediation. He has published more than 180 refereed journal papers with citation over 18000 and H-index of 77. He was recognized as highly cited researcher (Cross-Field) in 2022 and 2023 by Clarivate and was in the list of highly cited Chinese authors (Environmental Science and Engineering) by Elsevier in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He served as a member of the editorial board of Journal of Hazardous Materials.
    Xiaoguang Duan (School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Australia) received his Ph.D. degree from Curtin University in 2016. He is currently an Associate Professor and ARC DECRA Fellow (2021) & ARC Future Fellow (2024). His research areas focus on environmental science, green catalysis, functional materials, advanced water purification technologies, and computational science. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed research papers including over 70 ESI Highly Cited Papers (1%). His publications received >32000 citations and H-index of 93. Based on research excellence, he was awarded the ACS Catalysis ECR Award, and JMCA Emerging Investigator Award. He was awarded the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 (MIT IU35, Asian Pacific) in 2021 and ES&T James J. Morgan Award in 2022. He was recognized as the Global Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate Analytics) in two fields of 'Environment/Ecology' and 'Chemistry' in 2022-2023, and in 'Cross-Field' in 2020-2021.
    Shaobin Wang (School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Australia) received his B. Sc degree from Peking University (China), and Ph.D. degree from The University of Queensland (Australia). He is now a Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow (2023). His research interests focus on nanomaterial synthesis and application for adsorption and catalysis, fuel and energy conversion and environmental remediation. He has published more than 700 refereed journal papers with citation over 88000 and H-index of 164. He was awarded 2012 Thomson Reuters Citation & Innovation Awards in Australia. He is also the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in 'Engineering', and ‘Chemistry’ and 'Environment/Ecology' for 2016-2022. He also served as the editor of Applied Catalysis B, Chemical Engineering Journal Advances, and Journal of Colloid and Interface Science.
  • Supported by:
    The Australian Research Council(DP230102406);The National Natural Science Foundation of China(22061132001);The National Natural Science Foundation of China(52100090);The China Scholarship Council for a one-year research grant at The University of Adelaide(202106270136)

Abstract:

Heterogeneous peroxymonosulfate (PMS)-based oxidation technology for water treatment requires innovative catalysts for efficient and selective production of desired reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as free radicals, singlet oxygen, catalyst-PMS* complexes, and high-valent metal-oxo species. Single-atom catalysts are featured with the maximized atom utilization as well as uniform and well-defined active sites, holding a great promise for effective and selective PMS activation. However, the structure-activity/selectivity relationships have not yet been well revealed owing to multiple ROS generation pathways and their complex interplay. Herein, we focus on the mechanisms of PMS activation by single-atom iron catalysts and identify the relationships of the geometric and electronic structures of single atom Fe centers to selective production of different reactive species/pathways. Moreover, in situ/operando techniques to monitor the dynamic evolution of active sites under practical working conditions and design of binuclear metal sites for synergistic catalysis will also be discussed.

Key words: Peroxymonosulfate activation, Single-atom iron catalyst, Radical, Nonradical, Water treatment, Environmental remediation