Oxygen vacancies-driven nonradical oxidation pathway of catalytic ozonation for efficient water decontamination

Developing catalysts with high efficiency and excellent interference tolerance for practical application remains a challenge in catalytic ozonation process. Herein, the surface Vo-rich catalyst was successfully prepared by lattice-doping Co into zinc ferrite spinel, which exhibited efficient mineralization of recalcitrant organic pollutants. The contaminants removal was mainly attributed to the nonradical-based oxygen species of surface atomic oxygen (*O) rather than traditional hydroxyl radical (·OH). The experiments and DFT calculation results revealed that Vo was the main active sites for adsorption of ozone and production of *O. The O-O in ozone was dissociated at Vo, trigging the formation of *O. In addition, the Vo-driven nonradical catalysis showed high resistance to the coexisting ions (200 mM Cl-, SO42- and NO3-) and exhibited excellent performance for actual wastewater treatment. This work provides a novel strategy to regulate the oxidation pathways in catalytic ozonation process for efficient mineralization of pollutants in complicated water matrices.