Non-doping 3D porous carbon with rich intrinsic defects for efficient nonradical activation of peroxymonosulfate toward the degradation of organic pollutants

Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation is regarded as a powerful method for the degradation of organic pollutants. Carbon materials have attracted much attention for PMS activation toward efficient nonradical oxidation process. The catalytic activity of most nanocarbon materials is usually attributed to heteroatom doping, while the contribution of intrinsic defects has been explored little. Herein, self-template method was used to synthesize porous carbon with rich intrinsic defects. The results showed that the intrinsic defects enhanced adsorption and activation of PMS. FT-IR and DFT results revealed the adsorption of PMS on the vacancy defect resulted in the elongation of the peroxy bonds, producing a higher potential of surface-bound oxidative complexes (3DPC-X-PMS*). Electron transfer from pollutants to PMS* was achieved and phenol was degraded with a kinetic constant of 1.45 min−1, higher than most reported carbon-based materials. Other pollutants including bisphenol A, sulfamethoxazole and 4-chlorophenol also can be degraded efficiently. Furthermore, it can keep original catalytic activity in complicated water matrix. The work provides a strategy to develop efficient carbon materials and contributes to the better understanding of the role of intrinsic defects for PMS activation in the degradation of organic pollutants.