Elastic modulation of Co3O4 electronic structure by sulfate anchoring for enhanced bisphenol A degradation in a dielectric barrier discharge plasma catalytic system

Herein, a sulfate-modified Co 3 O 4 (SO 4 2− /Co 3 O 4 ) was designed to significantly enhance the removal efficiency of bisphenol A (BPA), a typical pharmaceutical and personal care product (PPCP), in dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) process by 61.61% within 9 min. The pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics ( k ) and energy efficiency (Y, mg kWh −1 ) rose by 9.60 and 3.47 folds, respectively. The promotion was ascribed to the directional conversion of discharge-generated O 3 and H 2 O 2 into superoxide radical (O 2 • − ), which relied on the formation of electron-hole ( e − - h + ) pairs. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations further uncovered the elastic adjustment of ≡SO 4 2− toward Co 3 O 4 's electronic structure via covalent network polarization, which not only lowered the reaction barrier of rate-limiting step for both O 3 and H 2 O 2 catalyses, but also enabled more h + to participate in H 2 O 2 activation. This work offers novel insights into tailoring spinel with a nonmetal doping strategy, paving the way for efficient remediation of refractory organic pollutants in water.