Confinement of Prussian Blue Analogs Boxes Inside Conducting Polymer Nanotubes Enables Significantly Enhanced Catalytic Performance for Water Treatment

Tubular nanoreactor with unique void-confinement effect has captured great attention for catalytic applications but is challenging in controllable fabrication and realizing a synergistically enhanced performance. Herein, a template polymerization-guided synthetic strategy is presented to confine hollow Prussian blue analog boxes inside conducting polypyrrole nanotubes (H-CoFe PBA@PPy NTs) as efficient peroxymonosulfate activator toward catalytic oxidation of toxic organic contaminants. This delicately designed H-CoFe PBA@PPy NTs display a superior kinetic rate constant compared with the pristine CoFe PBA cubes (7.9 fold) and H-CoFe PBA boxes (22.6 fold). Experimental evidence reveals that the generation of multiple reactive oxygen species in the nanotubes plays a vital role for the significantly enhanced catalytic efficiency for dye degradation. The superior catalytic performance is attributed to the intrinsic bimetallic CoFe PBA to provide abundant active sites, distinct nanotubular structure to concentrate the reactant molecules within a confined space, and excellent electron/mass transport property. This work presents new horizons for the design of high-efficiency and stable catalysts with space confinement effects to promote future advanced water treatment technology.