Boron-doped porous carbon boosts electron transport efficiency for enhancing Fenton-like oxidation capacity: High-speed driving of Fe(III) reduction

Abstract

Herein, Fenton-like cocatalysts with sufficient activity and stability were developed to accelerate the Fe(III)/Fe(II) redox cycle, thereby enhancing the oxidation capacity of Fe(III)/H2O2 system. A porous engineering coupled with heteroatom doping strategy was adopted to prepare high-performance cocatalysts represented by boron-doped porous carbon (BPC). A small amount of BPC input (0.04 g/L) drives the efficient degradation of pollutants in Fe(III)/H2O2 system via •OH-dominated radical pathway. Based on characterization results, the doping of boron species optimizes the pore structure of cocatalysts and improves their co-catalytic activity. Meanwhile, boron content increase steers the reduction of Fe(III) in BPC/Fe(III)/H2O2 system through an “expressway” with higher electron transport efficiency. Theoretical calculations suggested the “electron porter” effect of BCO2 on BPC to produce free Fe(II) for H2O2 activation. The continuous-flow device using BPC as a membrane component has excellent performance in purifying micro-polluted water. This study provides a novel co-catalytic Fenton-like method for water remediation.