Self-recycling Fenton chemistry through the ordered hydration shells of Fe
- 1Research Center of Ministry of Education for Fine Chemicals
- 2Shanxi University
- 3Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Molecular Engineering of Ministry of Education
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.
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BibTeX
@misc{zhang2026selfrecycling,
title = {{Self-recycling Fenton chemistry through the ordered hydration shells of Fe}},
author = {Qi Zhang and Xuan Guo and Ruihan Wang and Hu Shi and Jie Wang and Jianghong Zhao and Hongxia Zhang and Pengju Yang},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15009323/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009323/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Self-recycling Fenton chemistry through the ordered hydration shells of Fe
AU - Qi Zhang
AU - Xuan Guo
AU - Ruihan Wang
AU - Hu Shi
AU - Jie Wang
AU - Jianghong Zhao
AU - Hongxia Zhang
AU - Pengju Yang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/22
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15009323/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15009323/v1
AB - 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.
ER -