Singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) is an excellent active species in green organic synthesis and water purification. However, to achieve efficient and selective generation of 1 O 2 , complicated preparation processes of the catalysts are always needed. Herein, we demonstrated a facile and scalable strategy to fabricate P‐doped nonmetal carbon catalysts for the selective generation of 1 O 2 via peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation. Experimental and theoretical calculation results verified that C2PO2/CPO3 were the active sites, which effectively activated PMS and promoted the generation of 1 O 2 with 100% selectivity. The excellent oxidation ability of 1 O 2 promoted exceptional reaction rate for the removal of organic pollutants and strong resistance to interference from environmental media. Meanwhile, the turnover number value of the oxidation of benzylic alcohol to benzaldehyde could reach 0.151 at room temperature with 100% selectivity, which is superior to most of the reported carbon catalysts. This work provides new strategy of simple yet effective catalysts for the selective production of 1 O 2 , holding great promise for diverse applications including environmental remediation and organic synthesis.
Hou et al. (Mon,) studied this question.