Enhanced Interfacial Electron Transfer by Asymmetric Cu‐Ov‐In Sites on In2O3 for Efficient Peroxymonosulfate Activation

Abstract Enhancing the peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation efficiency to generate more radicals is vital to promote the Fenton‐like reaction activity, however, how to promote the PMS adsorption and accelerate the interfacial electron transfer to boost its activation kinetics remains a great challenge. Herein, we prepared Cu‐doped defect‐rich In 2 O 3 (Cu‐In 2 O 3 /O v ) catalysts containing asymmetric Cu−O v −In sites for PMS activation in water purification. The intrinsic catalytic activity is that the side‐on adsorption configuration of the O−O bond (Cu−O−O−In) at the Cu‐O v ‐In sites significantly stretches the O−O bond length. Meanwhile, the Cu‐O v ‐In sites increase the electron density near the Fermi energy level, promoting more and faster electron transfer to the O−O bond for generating more SO 4 ⋅ − and ⋅OH. The degradation rate constant of tetracycline achieved by Cu‐In 2 O 3 /O v is 31.8 times faster than In 2 O 3 /O v , and it shows the possibility of membrane reactor for practical wastewater treatment.