Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The century-old Fenton reaction has been constrained by the kinetic bottleneck of Fe3+/Fe2+ cycling, which demands excessive iron dosing and generates hazardous sludge. Here we report that Fe3+ ions intrinsically bypass this limitation through a remote through-space ligand effect that induces long-range ordering of water molecules beyond the first coordination shell. This ordered hydration network functions as a visible-to-red-light antenna via a collective water-network-to-metal charge transfer mechanism, continuously generating electrons that reduce Fe3+ to Fe2+ without exogenous photocatalysts or chemical reductants. This self-sustaining cycle achieves approximately 80% TOC removal of phenol in a scaled-up 15 L reactor under natural sunlight and sustains approximately 65% TOC removal over 20 consecutive cycles for real pharmaceutical wastewater, with only 1.2% iron loss per cycle and near-zero sludge generation. This work transforms a canonical kinetic barrier into a self-regenerating catalytic platform, uncovering a hydration-driven photochemical route that offers sustainable, sludge-free, sunlight-driven water purification.
Source: ChemRxiv
Institution: Shanxi University
Language: English
Subfield: Water Science and Technology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Award: G2279618307
OpenAlex ID: W7214117419