Ultra-fast catalytic oxidation of persulfate by waste fiber carbon with lattice distortion

Abstract

Every year, a staggering 920,000 tons of chemical fiber textiles are discarded globally, presenting a pressing global challenge of how to extract their high-value utility. This research is dedicated to recovering carbon from waste chemical fiber textiles for catalytic oxidation and degradation of pharmaceutical intermediates in wastewater. Through the interaction of sulfonation and nitrogen doping, a synthetic fiber known as nitrogen-sulfonated doped carbon (SNBC) was skillfully synthesized, resulting in lattice distortion that effectively regulates the p-band center of the catalyst. The result was a significant increase in the interfacial electron transfer rate, which increased the surface electron transfer rate and catalytic removal rate of bisphenol AF by more than 6 times, while greatly reducing the number of oxidants required. This study provides an efficient method for the resource utilization of waste synthetic fiber textiles, which has the characteristics of low energy consumption and high economic benefit.