MoCoB metallic glass microwire catalysts for highly efficient and pH-universal degradation of wastewater

Abstract

One important goal of the current Fenton-like catalysts is to develop highly efficient and pH-universal catalysts that can operate with little performance degradation over multiple recycles. Herein, we report a ternary MoCoB metallic glass (MG) microwire catalyst, which shows exceptional Fenton-like activity for degrading various dyes in a wide pH range (5–10). Moreover, the MoCoB MG catalyst with an ultrahigh glass-transition temperature of 1002 K exhibits excellent reusability and can be used for more than 46 times without a decay in efficiency. It is regarded that the excellent catalytic activity and sustainability of the MoCoB MG catalyst originates from the bimetallic effect involving Moⁿ/Moⁿ⁺¹ and Co^n+1/Coⁿ cycling, which accelerates the electronic transfer kinetics, enabling the generation of multiple reactive oxygen species (•OH and •O₂^-). First-Principles Calculations revealed again that MG catalysts provide a large electron base for the whole catalytic process.