Biomimetic design of wood carbon-based heterogeneous catalysts for enhanced organic pollutants degradation

The controllable and large-scale synthesis of Fenton-like catalysts advances the development of industrial wastewater treatments, but a great challenge is remained due to its low catalytic activity at a wide pH range and poor cyclic utilization. Herein, the urchin-like Cu2O/CuO heterojunction on a multi-channeled wood carbon was rationally designed as a heterogeneous catalyst for enhancing degradation of aromatic organic pollutants. The results showed that the wood carbon-based catalysts could make pollutants to be degraded efficiently in the pH range of 5.0–12.0. The high-performing wood carbon-based materials exhibited the high removal rate of over 90.0% even after 5-cycles. Benefited from the induction effect of wood carbon, the Cu2O/CuO heterojunction with bionic structure was anchored accurately and selectively. The as-prepared Cu2O/CuO@wood carbon exhibited efficient water transport capacity because of high specific surface area and rich channels. The Cu(II)/Cu(I) redox circulation and defective carbon synergistically boosted the generation of hydroxyl radicals (•OH) and singlet oxygen (1O2), which were primarily involved into the degradation process. The density functional theory calculations further unveiled that the Cu2O/CuO heterojunction could possess large adsorption energy for H2O2 and induced increased number of electron transfer for enhancing breakage of OO bonds. This research opens up a new avenue for the biomimetic synthesis of heterogeneous catalysts for industrial wastewater treatments.