Bimetallic catalyst with dual-reaction-center and oxygen vacancies for synergistically boosting peracetic acid activation and decontamination via 1O2 generation

Shuo Li; Yalun Yang; Heshan Zheng; Junfeng Niu; Ying Deng; Jun Ma; Yoong Kit Leong; Jo-Shu Chang; Wen-Wei Li

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2025.124001

Bimetallic catalyst with dual-reaction-center and oxygen vacancies for synergistically boosting peracetic acid activation and decontamination via ¹O₂ generation

Water Res. 2025 Jun 10:284:124001. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2025.124001. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shuo Li¹, Yalun Yang², Heshan Zheng³, Junfeng Niu², Ying Deng¹, Jun Ma⁴, Yoong Kit Leong⁵, Jo-Shu Chang⁶, Wen-Wei Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Food and Bioengineering, Qiqihar University, Qiqihar, 161006, China.
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.
³ College of Food and Bioengineering, Qiqihar University, Qiqihar, 161006, China. Electronic address: 03002@qqhru.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China.
⁵ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan; Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan; Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Yuan Ze University, Chung-Li 32003, Taiwan. Electronic address: changjs@mail.ncku.edu.tw.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Advanced Environmental Technology, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science & Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China. Electronic address: wwli@ustc.edu.cn.

PMID: 40516403
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2025.124001

Abstract

Peracetic acid (PAA)-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are appealing for water treatment due to their environmentally benignity and ease of activation. However, the predominant generation of radicals in the existing catalytic systems severely limits their practical water decontamination performance. In this study, we report an Mn-doped Cu₂(OH)₃Cl catalyst supported on hexagonal boron nitride (Mn-Cu₂(OH)₃Cl@BN), providing dual reaction centers (DRCs) and abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs) to facilitate selective generation of singlet oxygen (¹O₂) from PAA activation. The Mn introduction raised the electron density of Cu sites to enhance PAA binding and activation towards ¹O₂ generation. Additionally, the BN support and the induced OVs further accelerated the electron transfer, rendering the composite catalyst high activity. As a consequence, the Mn-Cu₂(OH)₃Cl@BN/PAA system exhibited excellent activity for degradation of tetracycline hydrochloride (TCH), with a reaction kinetic constant 91 times higher than that of Cu₂(OH)₃Cl. In addition, the degradation efficiency was still above 85 % after five runing cycle, indicating its good stability. Our work lays an important basis for innovation of PAA-based AOPs towards low-carbon water treatment application.

Keywords: Dual reaction centers; Oxygen vacancies; Peracetic acid; Singlet oxygen.