A novel immobilized solid acid coating on Q235 carbon steel was successfully prepared via plasma electrolytic oxidation. Sulfate functionalized Fe3O4/FeAl2O4 was confirmed by XRD, TEM and XPS analysis and surface acidic property was verified by NH3-TPD measurement. Fenton-like degradation performance was evaluated by employing phenol as target pollutant. Fast phenol degradation under the wide range of pH (pH 6-9) was accomplished within only 11 min. Without sulfate functionalization, phenol could hardly be degraded by Fenton-like oxidation which meant that after sulfate functionalization the existence of acidic microenvironment on the catalyst surface not only provided an optimal circumstance for enhanced Fenton-like reaction, but also avoided adjusting pH of the treated wastewater. A reasonable Fenton-like degradation mechanism was proposed. This paper offered a novel design thought for synthesizing excellent Fenton-like coating catalyst under circumneutral pH. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.