Unexpected Intrinsic Catalytic Function of Porous Boron Nitride Nanorods for Highly Efficient Peroxymonosulfate Activation in Water Treatment

Yueping Bao, Weili Yan, Ping Ping Sun, Justin Zhu Yeow Seow, Shun Kuang Lua, Wen Jie Lee, Yen Nan Liang, Teik Thye Lim, Zhichuan J. Xu, Kun Zhou*, Xiao Hu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Porous boron nitride (BN) nanorods, which were synthesized via a one-stage pyrolysis, exhibited excellent catalytic performance for organics' degradation via peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. The origin of the unexpected catalytic function of porous BN nanorods was proposed, in which non-radical oxidation driven by the defects on porous BN dominated the sulfamethoxazole degradation via the generation of singlet oxygen (1O2). The adsorption energy between PMS and BN was calculated via density functional theory (DFT), and the PMS activation kinetics were further investigated using an electrochemical methodology. The evolution of 1O2was verified by electron spin resonance (ESR) and chemical scavenging experiments. The observed non-radical oxidation presented a high robustness in different water matrices, combined with a series of much less toxic intermediates. The used BN was easily regenerated by heating in air, in which the B-O bond was fully recovered. These findings provide new insights for BN as a non-metal catalyst for organics' degradation via PMS activation, in both theoretical and practical prospects.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)18409-18419
Number of pages11
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume14
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 27 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Materials Science

Keywords

  • boron nitride
  • DFT
  • metal-free
  • non-radical
  • peroxymonosulfate

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