Nanocarbons are promising alternatives to metal-based catalysts in advanced oxidation processes for wastewater treatment. Herein, carbon cryogels were prepared through the hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of glucose directed by polyaniline (PANI) and their catalytic performances towards persulfate (PS) activation for the degradation of organic pollutants were investigated. When the polymerization temperature of PANI was increased from 0 to 80 °C, carbon cryogels exhibited increased total pore volume (0.23–0.33 cm³ g⁻¹) and decreased average particle diameter (132–63 nm), which further enhanced their adsorption and catalytic activity for PS activation. The excellent catalytic activity of carbon cryogels for PS activation was universal in the degradation of different organic pollutants, comparable to various metal catalysts and reported metal-free catalyst, applied to a wide pH range (pH 3–9), and easily regenerated through calcination, proving that it had potential practical application for organic wastewater treatment. Radical quenching and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiments demonstrated the nonradical pathway in catalytic oxidation of orange acid 7 (AO7) on carbon cryogels. It was found that the reaction rate of catalytic oxidation of AO7 was positively correlated with the meso-/macropore volume and negatively with particle diameter of carbon cryogels. Finally, the catalytic process for organic pollutants on carbon cryogels was suggested.

在废水处理的高级氧化工艺中，纳米碳是金属基催化剂的有前途的替代品。本文中，通过聚苯胺（PANI）引导的葡萄糖的水热碳化（HTC）制备了碳凝胶，并研究了它们对过硫酸盐（PS）活化以降解有机污染物的催化性能。当PANI的聚合温度从0升高到80°C时，碳晶凝胶显示出增加的总孔体积（0.23-0.33 cm ³  g ^-1）并降低了平均粒径（132-63 nm），这进一步增强了它们对PS活化的吸附和催化活性。碳冷冻剂对PS活化具有出色的催化活性，在各种有机污染物的降解中具有普遍性，可与各种金属催化剂和已报道的不含金属的催化剂媲美，适用于广泛的pH范围（pH 3–9），并易于通过煅烧再生，证明其在有机废水处理中具有潜在的实际应用价值。自由基猝灭和电子顺磁共振（EPR）实验证明了碳冰晶上橙酸7（AO7）催化氧化的非自由基途径。结果发现，AO7的催化氧化反应速率与中/大孔体积呈正相关，与碳晶凝胶的粒径呈负相关。最后，提出了碳冰晶上有机污染物的催化过程。