Defect-induced electric field effects direct Fenton-like oxidation pathways towards polymerization for sustainable water treatment

Defect-induced electric field effects direct Fenton-like oxidation pathways towards polymerization for sustainable water treatment | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Defect-induced electric field effects direct Fenton-like oxidation pathways towards polymerization for sustainable water treatment Feng He, Banghai Liu, Changkun Yang, Xinping Huang, Yin Pan, Cheng Cheng, and 3 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6348877/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Polymerization-oriented Fenton-like oxidation process offers a promising way for energy harvesting while lowering carbon emissions. However, altering the pollutant removal route from molecular fragmentation to polymerization remains challenging. Here we report that defect engineering, i.e., tailoring defect density in carbon catalysts, can strengthen the polymeric decontamination process in Fenton-like oxidation reactions. Theoretical and experimental results show that the vacancy defect-induced build-in electric field on carbon nanotube accelerate electron transfer from 4-chlorophenol to surface-bound PMS, boosting the formation of polymeric precursors (i.e., phenoxonium) via two-electron transfer route. The defects simultaneously enhance the adsorption of the generated precursors on the catalysts with strengthened binding interactions, further promoting the stabilization, and aggregation of phenoxonium precursors for polymerization. The established oxidative systems achieved complete phenolic pollutant removal with electron utilization efficiency reaching 551%. The carbon emission was also reduced by 74% relative to the complete mineralization strategy. Overall, this work provides a novel feasible approach to direct organic pollutant removal towards polymerization with low carbon emission for sustainable water treatment. Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental sciences/Environmental chemistry Fenton-like oxidation Vacancy defect Carbon nanotubes Electric Field effects Polymerization Low carbon emission Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 Dec, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6348877","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":442140768,"identity":"dcda41b5-cf0e-454a-b6ce-bc757469e6d1","order_by":0,"name":"Feng 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