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February 8, 2026Angewandte Chemie International Edition6 citationsOpen Access

Proximity Engineering of Fe‒N 4 Twins for Oriented Generation of Singlet Oxygen for Hospital Wastewater Treatment

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YWY. N. WangZXZhaokun XiongSYShuai Yang

Key Points

  • This work aims to optimize the configuration of Fe–N4 twin sites to enhance singlet oxygen generation for wastewater treatment.
  • Developed a technique to modulate Fe–Fe distances from 0.95 nm to 0.43 nm.
  • Constructed various Fe–N4 twin configurations.
  • Characterized ligand-field strengths and spin states.
  • Evaluated Fenton-like activity trends and wastewater treatment efficacy.
  • The optimal Fe–Fe distance of 0.43 nm generated significant singlet oxygen.
  • Demonstrated over 120 hours of effective treatment of organic hospital wastewater.
  • Achieved simultaneous disinfection and pharmaceutical removal through enhanced catalysis.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Precisely tailoring the molecular configurations of single‐atom sites and elucidating their correlation with generated specific reactive species is crucial for advancing Fenton‐like chemistry toward targeted remediation. Herein, we developed a facile approach to precisely modulate the distances between isolated Fe‒N 4 sites (d Fe–Fe ) from nanometer (0.95 nm) to subnanometer (0.43 nm) to construct a family of well‐defined Fe‒N 4 twins with manipulated ligand‐field strength and spin states. Different Fe‒N 4 twin sites trigger a metal‐loading‐independent volcano‐shaped Fenton‐like activity trend. The optimal configuration, achieved at an Fe‒Fe distance of 0.43 nm (Fe d0.43 SA), induces an intermediate‐spin (t 2g 4e g 1) configuration that optimizes e g orbital occupancy, thereby promoting peroxymonosulfate (PMS) adsorption to form *HSO 5 − and subsequently lowers the energy barrier for coupling with another PMS to selectively generate singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ). The robust molecular catalyst with Fe‒N 4 twin sites sustains over 120 h of continuous treatment of organic wastewater and demonstrates simultaneous disinfection and pharmaceutical removal of actual hospital wastewater. This work presents an advanced strategy for engineering single‐atom sites with multi‐site cooperativity to regulate Fenton‐like catalysis, enabling rapid and real‐world water purification.

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Cite This Study

Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6988292d0fc35cd7a88495b9https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.6249880
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