Prof. Jiang  et al ., from (1 . Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; 2 . University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 3 . Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China ) and their research collaboration team have reported on the single-atom Fe(III)- and nitrogen doped carbon (Fe−N−C) which can efficiently activate peroxydisulfate (PDS) to selectively remove some organic pollutants following an unreported nonradical pathway. Generally, PDS is used as an oxidant for the degradation of polluted water/soil, it generates sulfate radical intermediate for the degradation pollutants, and this radical unselectively reacts with most of the substances in water/soil. PDS can be activated by base, heat, UV, low valent transition metal ions (e.g., Co 2+, Fe 2+, Cu 2+, and Ag + ), and zero valent iron to produce a sulfate radical (SO 4 •− ). All these PDS activation...

The recent interest on the heterogeneous single-atom catalysts (SACs) were composed of atomically dispersed active metal cen ters in catalyst research field, because of the increased atom utilization and unique catalytic properties of such materials, which differ greatly from those of conventional nano or subnano counter parts. In this case, the fabrication of SACs are challenging, especially in the case of noble metal based catalysts and many researches are ongoing in this field for the development of improved catalysts. Many chall enges have faced for the hybridization of controlling of single atoms in suitable host materials, but it has also equally opened with unique opportunities for catalyst design. SACs with atomically dispersed active metal centers on supports represent an intermediary between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. Therefore, understanding the homogeneous catalysis prototype creates a great opportunity for designing SACs and developing related applications....