Metallic glasses (MGs) have attracted great attention in wastewater treatment because of their high reactivity arising from amorphous structure, large residual stressandhighdensityoflowcoordinationsites.However,the reactivityofMGswouldgraduallyslowdownwithtimedueto thepassivationofactivesitesbycorrosionproducts,resulting in limited long-term reactivity, which is also an unsolved key issue for established crystalline zero valent iron (ZVI) technology. Here, such problems are successfully overcome by introducing nanoscale chemical inhomogeneities in Fe-based MG (Fe-MGI), which apparently contributes to local galvanic celleffectandaccelerateselectrontransferduringdegradation process. More importantly, the selective depletion of Fe0 causeslocalvolumeshrinkageandcrackformation,leadingto self-peeling of precipitated corrosion products and reacted regions. Thereby fresh low coordination sites could be continuously provided, counteracting the mass transport and reactivity deteriorating problem. Consequently, Fe-MGI demonstrates excellent long-term reactivity and self-refreshing properties even in neutral solution. The present results provide not only a new candidate but also a new route of designing ZVI materials for wastewater treatment.

Fe-based metallic glass; inhomogeneity; self-refreshing; wastewater treatment; c

tsinghua university; China Iron & Steel Research Institute Group; Chinese Academy of Science; Nanjing University of Science and Technology; Institute of High Energy Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences