Role of curvature in a carbon electronic structure under spatial confinement: Conversion of nonradicals to radicals

The structure-induced regulation mechanism of that regulates the participation of radicals and nonradicals involved in the activation of the peroxymonosulfate (PMS) reaction pathway is important for the metal-free catalytic degradation of water pollutants. Here, an N-doped carbon material with a hollow structure (SiM) was constructed by a template self-assembly method, which provides a unique spatially confined configuration that activates PMS to oxidize bisphenol A (BPA). The results of a systematic study showed that the curvature of the hollow structure controls the proportion of carbon sp3/sp2 hybridization and the transition of persistent free radicals (PFR), thereby triggering the mechanism of nonradicals and radicals conversion. The content of the N species was varied to obtain mathematical relationship between the N species content and the nonradical reaction rate. The results of this study provide new insights into the controlled pathways and types of reaction in carbon-catalyzed peroxymonosulfate activation.