Novel zinc-based catalysts with high zinc loading capacity enabling highly efficient degradation of organic contaminant

The development of the high catalytic performance zinc-based catalyst featuring eco-friendly remains a considerable challenge in environmental treatment. Serving as a nitrogen-rich anchoring ligand, 3,5-diamino-1,2,4-triazole was adopted to construct a porous Zn-based catalyst through a facile grinding-assisted pyrolysis route. Zinc species served as both a pore-forming agent and active site, endowing the ZnNC with a zinc loading of 11.26 wt% with a specific surface area of 388.29 m 2 /g. The as-prepared ZnNC displayed outstanding performance in activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS), enabling complete degradation of the refractory contaminant carbamazepine (CBZ) within 15 min, and the apparent rate constant (k obs ) was 0.395 min⁻¹, surpassing the performance of most reported metal-based catalysts. Interestingly, the reaction at 0 °C was more favorable for the degradation of CBZ, which was attributed to the strengthened adsorption of CBZ on the ZnNC at low temperatures, differing from most previous reports that the degradation rate increased with rising temperature. Quenching experiments in combination with EPR characterizations revealed that 1 O 2 acted as the predominant reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the ZnNC/PMS system, endowing the catalytic system with wide pH adaptability and strong anti-interference capability against coexisting ions. Importantly, ZnNC maintained a relatively stable CBZ removal rate after five cycles and during 24 h of continuous operation, demonstrating its preliminary application potential. This work provides a viable and facile strategy for the rational construction of highly active and stable zinc-based catalysts for wastewater remediation. Download: Download high-res image (231KB) Download: Download full-size image