Facile synthesis of chitosan-derived maillard reaction productions coated CuFeO2 with abundant oxygen vacancies for higher Fenton-like catalytic performance

The two shortcomings of the Fenton-like catalyst delafossite-type oxide (CuFeO 2 ) lie in its spontaneous agglomeration and deactivation under neutral working pH. To remedy these drawbacks, novel Fenton-like catalyst chitosan-derived maillard reaction productions coated CuFeO 2 with abundant oxygen vacancies (OV–CuFeO 2 @MRPs) was synthesized by hydrothermal method with no extra chemical reducing agent. The systemic characterization illustrated that richer oxygen vacancies and higher particles dispersion of OV-CuFeO 2 @MRPs contributed to better Rhodamine B (RhB) degradation under neutral pH compared to pure CuFeO 2 . Cooper antisite defects in OV-CuFeO 2 @MRPs were evidenced by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), Raman spectra and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) linescan. To keep the charge balance, OV-CuFeO 2 @MRPs should form rich oxygen vacancies, which was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and solid-state electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometer (solid-state EPR). Furthermore, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis revealed that oxygen vacancies could improve the electron transfer . Scavenging experiments and electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR) analysis demonstrated that OH was main active radical during Fenton-like reaction, and the density functional theory (DFT) calculation verified that the oxygen vacancy could effectively adsorb H 2 O 2 and elongate O–O bond of H 2 O 2 , thus promoting the activation of H 2 O 2 into OH.