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Dual-reaction-center catalytic process continues Fenton’s story

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Abstract

Triggered by global water quality safety issues, the research on wastewater treatment and water purification technology has been greatly developed in recent years. The Fenton technology is particularly powerful due to the rapid attack on pollutants by the generated hydroxyl radicals (•OH). However, both heterogeneous and homogeneous Fenton/Fenton-like technologies follow the classical reaction mechanism, which depends on the oxidation and reduction of the transition metal ions at single sites. So even after a century of development, this reaction still suffers from its inherent bottlenecks in practical application. In recent years, our group has been focusing on studying a novel heterogeneous Fenton catalytic process, and we developed the dual-reaction-center (DRC) system for the first time. In the DRC system, H2O2 and O2 can be efficiently reduced to reactive oxygen species (ROS) in electron-rich centers, while pollutants are captured and oxidized by the electron-deficient centers. The obtained electrons from pollutants are diverted to the electron-rich centers through bonding bridges. This process breaks through the classic Fenton mechanism, and improves the performance and efficiency of pollutant removal in a wide pH range. Here, we provide a brief overview of Fenton’s story and focus on combing the discovery and development of the DRC technology and mechanism in recent years. The construction of the DRC and its performance in the pollutant degradation and interfacial reaction process are described in detail.We look forward to bringing a new perspective to continue Fenton’s story through research and development of DRC technology.

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Acknowledgements

The related work was financially supported by the Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme (Young Scholar), the Introduced Innovative R&D Team Project under the “Pearl River Talent Recruitment Program” of Guangdong Province (No. 2019ZT08L387), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2018A030313487), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51808140, 51838005 and 51538013) and the Young Innovative Talent Project in Higher Education of Guangdong Province (No. 2017KQNCX150).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Research at Greater Bay Area, Key Laboratory for Water Quality and Conservation of the Pearl River Delta (Ministry of Education), Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Chao Lu, Kanglan Deng, Chun Hu & Lai Lyu

Authors
  1. Chao Lu
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  2. Kanglan Deng
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  3. Chun Hu
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  4. Lai Lyu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lai Lyu.

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Highlights

• Dual-reaction-center (DRC) system breaks through bottleneck of Fenton reaction.

• Utilization of intrinsic electrons of pollutants is realized in DRC system.

• DRC catalytic process well continues Fenton’s story.

Chao Lu received his bachelor’s degree from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China in 2018 and is now a graduate student in Environmental Engineering at Guangzhou University, China under the supervision of Dr. Lai Lyu. He is mainly engaged in the construction of surface DRCs for Fenton-like water treatment technology.

Kanglan Deng received her bachelor’s degree in 2018 and is now a graduate student majoring in Environmental Science at Guangzhou University, China under the supervision of Dr. Lai Lyu. Her research focus is on the mechanism exploration of metal-organic DRC Fenton catalysis.

Chun Hu received her Ph.D. degree from RCEES, CAS in 2001 and was funded by National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholar of China in 2011. She is now the dean and chief scientist of the IERGBA, Guangzhou University, China. She mainly focuses on the research of environmental chemistry and interface chemistry.

Lai Lyu received his Ph.D. degree from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2017 and was awarded as “Young Pearl River Scholar” in 2019. He is now an associate professor at the IERGBA, Guangzhou University, China. He focuses on the research of interface chemistry and heterogeneous catalysis for water treatment.

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Lu, C., Deng, K., Hu, C. et al. Dual-reaction-center catalytic process continues Fenton’s story. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 14, 82 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1261-x

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