Photocatalytic fenton-like system with atomic Fe on carbon nitride boost selective glucose oxidation towards gluconic acid

Peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation is a prospective technique for pollutant degradation, but less attention has been paid to the tunable modulation and effective utilization of reactive oxygen species in selective oxidation. Herein, we develop a photocatalytic Fenton-like system with Fe single-atom supported on carbon nitride that generates singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) as dominant active species to selectively oxidize glucose to gluconic acid. The loading of atomic Fe onto carbon nitride can notably aggrandize the light absorption and boost the photon-generated carriers transfer efficiency. With PMS and simulated sunlight, the Fe single-atom catalyst afforded a glucose conversion of 36.3% with gluconic acid selectivity up to 91.6%, as is superior to the state-of-the-art catalytic systems. Control experiments and theoretical analysis reveal that the excellent catalytic performance of Fe single-atom supported on carbon nitride is resulted from the enhanced photocatalytic activity with better PMS activation ability.