Enhanced heterogeneous activation of peroxymonosulfate by boosting internal electron transfer in a bimetallic Fe3O4-MnO2 nanocomposite

Transition metal-based bimetallic oxides can effectively activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for the degradation of organic contaminants, which may be attributed to the enhanced electron transfer efficiency between transition metals. Here, we investigated the high-efficiency catalytic activation reaction of PMS on a well-defined bimetallic Fe-Mn nanocomposite (BFMN) catalyst. The surface topography and chemical information of BFMN were simultaneously mapped with nanoscale resolution. Rhodamine B (RhB, as a model pollutant) was used to evaluate the oxidation activity of PMS activation system. The maximum absorption peak of RhB obviously blue shifted from 554 nm to 501 nm, and decreased sharply to disappear completely within 60 min. The removal performance is better than most of the reported single transition metal oxide. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) imaging of the BFMN electronic structure after catalytic activation confirmed that the accelerated internal electron transfer is mainly caused by the synergy effect of Mn and Fe sites at the catalysis boundary. The outstanding ability of BFMN for PMS chemical adsorption and activation may attribute to the enhanced covalency and reactivity of Mn-O. These results of this study can advance understandings on the origins of bimetallic oxides activity for PMS activation and developing the efficient metal oxide catalysts in real practice.