Oxygen Vacancy Defects in Hematite Enhance Maillard Reactions and Promote Recalcitrant Organic Carbon Formation
O) serving as key steps in molecular evolution. The presence of OVDs on hematite promoted the generation of Lewis acid sites. Spherical aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (Cs-STEM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that localized electron density at Lewis acid sites enriched reactant substrates, lowering the activation energy for the Schiff base reaction by 1.01 eV and thereby promoting the polymerization of aromatic compounds. Additionally, a portion of aromatic Maillard products were selectively localized at Lewis acid sites, enhancing OC stability. These findings provide mechanistic insights into OVD-catalyzed polymerization and underscore the importance of mineral defect structures in predicting soil OC persistence.
Authors
- Ke Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9146-6269)
- Xin Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1098-9484)
- Xiangyu Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2293-3293)
- Chiheng Chu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9493-9120)
- Baoliang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8196-081X)
- Lin Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5261-650X)
- Wentao Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5809-1522)
- Yi-Xiang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4021-4228)
- Siyu Nie
- Xiaoying Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3272-341X)
- Kun Wang
Institutions
- Yangtze River Delta Physics Research Center (China) (CN)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Published
- 2026-04-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c02944
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China