Endogenous Substances Utilization for Water Self-Purification Amplification Driven by Nonexpendable H2O2 over a Micro-Potential Difference Surface

Abstract

Natural self-purification of water is limited by mass transfer processes between inert oxygen (O₂) and stable pollutants. This process must rely on large energy inputs and resource consumption, which have become a global challenge in the environmental field. Here, we greatly amplify this self-purification effect of natural dissolved oxygen (DO) by nonexpendable H₂O₂ triggering a DRC catalyst with a micro-potential difference surface. This low-energy strategy is mainly realized by lowering the activation energy barriers of endogenous substances and simultaneously opening the mass transfer channels over the Cu-ZnO surface. In this way, pollutant electrons and energy are efficiently utilized to activate DO. Surprisingly, the rapid degradation of the pollutants is accompanied by H₂O₂ consumption of only 2.6% at most, sometimes even reaching zero consumption, with the instantaneous absolute amount of H₂O₂ exceeding 100%. The typical endocrine disruptor BPA has been proven to be harmlessly degraded to small molecule alcohols and acids by self-purification amplification, including cleavage of stable contaminants on the catalyst surface, activation of natural DO, and enhancement of mass transfer between them.

Keywords: micro-potential difference; nonexpendable H2O2; oxygen activation; pollutant electron utilization; self-purification amplification.