Iron-copper bimetallic nanoparticles dispersed within alginate-derived porous carbon: One-pot fabrication, characterization, and efficient peroxydisulfate activation for acid red 73 degradation

In recent years, the facile fabrication of metal–carbon nanocomposites has attracted significant attention due to their versatile and promising applications. Herein, iron-copper bimetallic nanoparticles dispersed within alginate-derived porous carbon (nFeCu/APC) were synthesized via one-pot pyrolysis using sodium alginate (NaA), Fe(NO 3 ) 3 , and Cu(NO 3 ) 2 as precursors. The resulting material featured metallic Fe (12.0 wt%) and Cu (16.0 wt%) nanoparticles with an average diameter of 17 ± 3 nm, embedded within the alginate-derived porous carbon (APC) framework. Moreover, nFeCu/APC exhibited a total pore volume (V total ) of 0.247 cm 3 /g and a specific surface area (S BET ) of 163 m 2 /g, likely attributable to the self-activation and self-templating of NaA during one-pot pyrolysis. The presence of Fe endowed the nanocomposite with magnetic properties (saturation magnetization of 15.3 emu/g), enabling convenient post-use recovery. Accordingly, nFeCu/APC was evaluated for activating peroxydisulfate (PDS) in the degradation of acid red 73 (AR73). Under a neutral condition (pH 7.0), 5.00 mM PDS activated by 0.100 g/L nFeCu/APC eliminated 97.5 ± 0.3 % AR73 (25 ppm) within 90 min at 30 °C. Kinetic analysis confirmed that the degradation fitted the pseudo-first-order model with an activation energy of 76.6 kJ/mol. Summing up, the nFeCu/APC nanocomposite demonstrated multifunctionality and strong potential in peroxydisulfate-driven advanced oxidation processes for efficient AR73 degradation.