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Research Article | Open Access

Single-atom iron on semi-hollow carbon synthesized by chemical-waste-vapor assistance: A superior catalyst for polychlorinated biphenyls degradation

Bingqing Wang1,2 ( ), Xu Han3, Jiaqiang Sun4, Zhichao Yun1,2( ), Yonghai Jiang1,2
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Simulation and Control of Groundwater Pollution, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore
Anhui Basic Discipline Research Center for Clean Energy and Catalysis, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241002, China
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Graphical Abstract

A chemical-waste-vapor-assisted strategy was developed for the synthesis of single atom irons on semi-hollow N-doped carbon. The prepared catalyst exhibited exceptional and unprecedented catalytic activity and stability for the degradation of decachlorobiphenyl.

Abstract

Single-atom site catalysts (SACs) with high atom utilization efficiencies exhibit unexpected properties, making them ideal candidate catalysts for numerous reactions. Herein, we report a chemical-waste-vapor-assisted (CWVA) strategy for the synthesis of a catalyst with single atom Fe on semi-hollow N-doped carbon (SA-Fe/SHNC). Benefitting from its atomic Fe sites, the prepared catalyst exhibited a 103-fold higher activity (0.827 vs. 0.008 molPCB-209·molM−1·h−1) and much longer time-stability (more than 50 vs. 0.5 h) than benchmarked Fe3O4 nanoparticles toward decachlorobiphenyl (PCB-209) degradation. Experiments and density functional theory calculations revealed that the highly active isolated Fe sites are responsible for the activity of Fe-SAC/SHNC. In addition, the CWVA method was shown to be applicable for synthesizing other single atoms on various structured supports, thereby providing new opportunities for the design of various structured SACs for different applications.

Keywords

single-atomic site catalystchemical-waste-vaporFe-N-Chollow structurepolychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

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Nano Research
Volume 18 Issue 2,
February 2025
Article number: 94907133
DOI: 10.26599/NR.2025.94907133
Cite this article:
Wang B, Han X, Sun J, et al. Single-atom iron on semi-hollow carbon synthesized by chemical-waste-vapor assistance: A superior catalyst for polychlorinated biphenyls degradation. Nano Research, 2025, 18(2): 94907133. https://doi.org/10.26599/NR.2025.94907133
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Received: 04 October 2024
Revised: 10 November 2024
Accepted: 12 November 2024
Published: 13 January 2025
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Tsinghua University Press.

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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