Insights into free radical and non-radical routes regulation for water cleanup

Yi Zhou, Wenxuan Guo, Yanpan Li, Ming Gao, Xuning Li, Wenyuan Liu, Zhuan Chen, Xiaohui Zhang, Yanbo Zhou and Mingyang Xing ()
Additional contact information
Yi Zhou: East China University of Science and Technology
Wenxuan Guo: East China University of Science and Technology
Yanpan Li: East China University of Science and Technology
Ming Gao: East China University of Science and Technology
Xuning Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wenyuan Liu: East China University of Science and Technology
Zhuan Chen: East China University of Science and Technology
Xiaohui Zhang: East China University of Science and Technology
Yanbo Zhou: East China University of Science and Technology
Mingyang Xing: East China University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract In the field of wastewater treatment, the regulation of free radical and non-radical routes has been one of the major challenges. This study investigates the regulation of radical and non-radical oxidation pathways in the peroxymonosulfate (PMS) oxidation system by controlling the calcination temperature of carbon materials and constructing bimetallic single-atom catalysts (NC-FeMn(TA)). Density functional theory calculations and experimental tests indicate that increasing the pyridinic nitrogen content and incorporating single metal atoms in nitrogen-doped carbon materials result in a predominantly non-radical oxidation process. In contrast, enhancing the content of graphitic and pyrrolic nitrogen species and introducing bimetallic catalytic centers promote a radical oxidation pathway. The NC-FeMn(TA)/PMS system demonstrates high oxidation performance over a broad pH range, exhibiting significant interference resistance and stability, with 100% degradation of target pollutants after 22 cycles and complete removal of emerging pollutants (including pharmaceuticals and personal care products, endocrine disrupting chemicals, dyes and chemical materials) within 5 min. This system’s remarkable performance suggests broad application potential in water pollution control field.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63235-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-63235-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63235-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().