Dynamic active-site induced by host-guest interactions boost the Fenton-like reaction for organic wastewater treatment

In heterogeneous catalysis, uncovering the dynamic evolution of active sites in the working conditions is crucial to realizing increased activity and enhanced stability of catalyst in Fenton-like activation. Herein, we capture the dynamic changes in the unit cell of Co/La-SrTiO3 catalyst during the exemplary peroxymonosulfate activation process using X-ray absorption spectroscopy and in situ Raman spectroscopy, revealing the substrate tuned its structural evolution, which is the reversible stretching vibration of O-Sr-O and Co/Ti-O bonds in different orientations. This process effectively promotes the generation of key SO5* intermediates, which is beneficial to the formation of 1O2 and SO4•- from persulfate on the Co active site. Density functional theory and X-ray absorption spectroscopy show that the optimized structural distortion enhanced the metal-oxygen bond strength by tuning the eg orbitals and increased the number of transferred electrons to peroxymonosulfate by about 3-fold, achieving excellent efficiency and stability in removing organic pollutants.