Synergistic effects on catalytic conversion of organic pollutants by transition metal-based high-entropy alloys

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) with compositional and structural properties have attracted widespread attention in environmental catalysis for organic pollutant remediation due to superior chemical activity. However, the difficult synthesis, unsatisfactory efficiency as well as high cost for HEAs in the actual catalytic process remain intractable challenges. Herein, a transition metal-based FeCoNiCuAl HEA was employed as an efficient catalyst to degrade acid orange II (AO Ⅱ) dyes in Fenton-like system, which achieves the degradation efficiency of up to 98.6 % within 50 min under optimized conditions. In addition, a first-order kinetic model was established to quantitatively describe the catalytic degradation process through a series of service condition tests. Most importantly, the synergistic effect of multiple active elements in HEAs contributes to accelerating in-situ construction of active sites and formation of active radicals, thereby enhancing catalytic capability. This research not only finds a potential material with environmentally function, but also presents an effective strategy for contaminant treatment.