Spontaneous Formation of Low Valence Copper on Red Phosphorus to Effectively Activate Molecular Oxygen for Advanced Oxidation Process.

Efficient spontaneous molecular oxygen (O) activation is an important technology in advanced oxidation processes. Its activation under ambient conditions without using solar energy or electricity is a very interesting topic. Low valence copper (LVC) exhibits theoretical ultrahigh activity toward O. However, LVC is difficult to prepare and suffers from poor stability. Here, we first report a novel method for the fabrication of LVC material (P-Cu) via the spontaneous reaction of red phosphorus (P) and Cu. Red P, a material with excellent electron donating ability and can directly reduce Cu in solution to LVC via forming Cu-P bonds. With the aid of the Cu-P bond, LVC maintains an electron-rich state and can rapidly activate O to produce ·OH. By using air, the ·OH yield reaches a high value of 423 μmol g h, which is higher than traditional photocatalytic and Fenton-like systems. Moreover, the property of P-Cu is superior to that of classical nano-zero-valent copper. This work first reports the concept of spontaneous formation of LVC and develops a novel avenue for efficient O activation under ambient conditions.