Strong hydrophobic affinity and enhanced OH generation boost energy-efficient electrochemical destruction of perfluorooctanoic acid on robust ceramic/PbO2-PTFE anode

Zimo Lou, Jiazhe Wang, Shibin Wang, Yinghua Xu, Jianguo Wang, Bin Liu, Chaochao Yu, Jianming Yu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The progress on perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) removal from wastewater is of great importance. Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) are effective, but always trigger concerns involving energy consumption and stability of electrode materials. In this work, a tubular polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) doped PbO2 film anode supported over ceramic (ceramic/PbO2-PTFE) was fabricated and used for energy-efficient destruction of ppm-level PFOA. Given initial PFOA concentrations of 20 mg L−1, this anode outcompetes conventional Ti/SnO2-Sb/PbO2 anode with 15-fold in apparent rate constant (kobs), 0.36-fold in electric energy per order of magnitude of PFOA removed (EEO), and 640-fold in released F by energy consumption per unit ([F] / E). Experimental results under different potentials and density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm that PFOA degradation is initiated by direct electron transfer (DET) and enabled by OH attack. Ceramic/PbO2-PTFE features stronger hydrophobic affinity with PFOA, and more OH generation than Ti/SnO2-Sb/PbO2, which boosts its good performance for PFOA degradation/defluorination. This anode exhibits 2.7-fold in service life than conventional Ti/SnO2-Sb/PbO2, and high tolerance for free fluorides, which expands its application for concentrated PFOA in waste stream. © 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Original languageEnglish
Article number119919
JournalSeparation and Purification Technology
Volume280
Online published13 Oct 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes

Research Keywords

  • Ceramic/PbO2-PTFE
  • Degradation mechanism
  • Energy-efficient destruction
  • PFOA
  • Stability

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