Surface-Confined Destruction of Pollutants with H2O2 Assistance over Cu0@CuOx-N-Graphitic Carbon Suspensions

High energy consumption is a serious problem for advanced oxidation processes to eliminate refractory organic pollutants in wastewater. Herein, a surface-confined reaction was developed to destruct bisphenol A and so on pollutants in the Cu0@CuOx-encapsulated nitrogen-doped graphitic carbon (Cu0@CuOx-NC) air-saturated aqueous suspension with a little H2O2 consumption. Based on different measurements and density functional theory calculations, the electron-rich around Cu species and the electron-poor around graphitic carbon were produced by Cu−π interactions from Cu–N and Cu–O–C coordinate bonds on Cu0@CuOx-NC. The pollutants, intermediates, and hydroxyl (OH–) were limited at the electron-poor area, being adsorbed to donate electrons producing surface cleavage of organics and •OH, while O2, H2O2, O2•–, and •OH were confined at the electron-rich area, capturing electrons to form O2•–, •OH, H2O2, and OH–, respectively. The surface-adsorbed OH– and O2 were the main driving force to greatly inhibit the H2O2 consumption, converting the destruction pollutants into alkane with a little bit oxidation from radicals in solution. Our findings provide a novel technology for high-concentration organic wastewater treatment with a lower energy input.