In this study, we coated a high proton conducive shell on the zero-valent iron (ZVI) surface by mechanically ball-milling ZVI with oxalic acid dihydrate (OX-ZVI), and demonstrated that the generated FeC2O4 center dot 2H(2)O shell dramatically improved the Cr(VI) removal rate of ZVI by about 15-80 times. Owing to a higher proton conductivity of FeC2O4 center dot 2H(2)O shell than that of Fe2O3 shell, proton could easily transfer through FeC2O4 center dot 2H(2)O shell into iron core and be reduced to center dot H, accompanying with fast surface-bound Fe2+ generation, resulting in high efficiency...