Zhong, S.Zhou, H.Ren, S.Hu, K.Ren, W.Chen, J.Zhu, Z.-S.Duan, X.Wang, S.2025-10-132025-10-132025nature water, 2025; 3(8):890-9012731-60842731-6084https://hdl.handle.net/2440/147725Electro-Fenton technology holds great promise for wastewater treatment but is constrained by the high cost of electrodes, high-purity oxygen input, rapid catalyst loss and sludge generation. Here we present a low-cost and self-supporting wooden electrode with pulsed excitation of ambient air and Fe3+ reduction, overcoming all the above issues in electro-Fenton processes. The electrode was fabricated via controlled wood delignification and carbonization, transforming into a self-supporting porous and functionalized architecture for efficient oxygen capture from air and two-electron reduction to H2O2. Periodic positive voltage pulses restored iron species from the electrode for in situ generation of radicals, minimizing surface iron accumulation and securing periodical electrode refreshing. A scaled-up system maintains a long-term operation in 30 days for bisphenol A removal without a performance loss at a low energy consumption of 0.013 kWh per gram of bisphenol A. This wooden-pulsed electro-Fenton system provides a low-cost and sustainable solution to practical wastewater treatment.en© 2025, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.Chemical engineering; ElectrocatalysisJournal article10.1038/s44221-025-00466-z745678Zhong, S. [0000-0001-6103-5125]Zhou, H. [0000-0003-1117-1422]Ren, S. [0000-0002-4475-6331]Hu, K. [0000-0002-8598-6336]Ren, W. [0000-0002-1299-0393]Zhu, Z.-S. [0000-0001-8821-2136]Duan, X. [0000-0001-9635-5807]Wang, S. [0000-0002-1751-9162]