Selective electrocatalytic reduction of oxygen to hydroxyl radicals via 3-electron pathway with FeCo alloy encapsulated carbon aerogel for fast and complete removing pollutants.

Abstract

We reported selective electrochemical reduction of oxygen (O 2 ) to hydroxyl radicals (·OH) via 3-electron pathway with FeCo alloy encapsulated by carbon aerogel (FeCoC). The graphite shell with exposed -COOH is conducive to the 2-electron reduction pathway for H 2 O 2 generation stepped by 1-electron reduction toward to ·OH. The electrocatalytic activity can be regulated by tuning the local electronic environment of carbon shell with the electrons coming from the inner FeCo alloy. The new strategy of ·OH generation from electrocatalytic reduction O 2 overcomes the rate-limiting step over electron transfer initiated by reduction-/oxidation-state cycle in Fenton process. Fast and complete removal of ciprofloxacin was achieved within 5 min in this proposed system, the apparent rate constant ( k obs ) was up to 1.44 ± 0.04 min -1 , which is comparable with the state-of-the-art advanced oxidation processes. The degradation rate was almost remained the same after 50 successive runs, suggesting the satisfactory stability for practical applications.