Investigation of Cu heteroatoms and Cu clusters in Fe-Cu alloy and their special effect mechanisms on the Fenton-like catalytic activity and reusability

Fe/Cu bimetallic materials are promising Fenton-like catalysts to deal with the increasing environmental pollution. However, it remains a great challenge to prepare conveniently desirable Fe/Cu co-catalysts with brilliant catalytic efficiency and simultaneously reveal their co-catalytic mechanism. Herein, we report a facile approach of generating Fe-Cu alloys with outstanding Fenton-like catalytic performance via a straightforward electrodeposition method. The degradation ability of Fe-Cu alloy mainly comes from [tbnd]Fe²⁺/H₂O₂ reaction, while the Cu components including the Cu heteroatoms in Fe lattice and the independent Cu clusters in alloy play a notable assistant role. Experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the Cu heteroatoms enhance the capacity of adjacent Fe atoms for the adsorption of H₂O₂ to generate more •OH, while the independent Cu clusters suppress the surface passivation of catalyst for improving the reusability in cycle experiments. Our study will promote the industrial application of bimetallic Fenton-like catalysts for water treatment.