Performance of nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel particle electrodes for electro-catalytic oxidation of simulated Bisphenol A wastewaters

Zhuang Chen; Yimei Zhang; Lincheng Zhou; Hao Zhu; Fei Wan; Yue Wang; Dandan Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.02.048

Performance of nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel particle electrodes for electro-catalytic oxidation of simulated Bisphenol A wastewaters

J Hazard Mater. 2017 Jun 15:332:70-78. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.02.048. Epub 2017 Feb 27.

Authors

Zhuang Chen¹, Yimei Zhang², Lincheng Zhou³, Hao Zhu³, Fei Wan³, Yue Wang³, Dandan Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; Labortory of Environmental Remediation and Functional Material, Suzhou Research Academy of North China Electric Power University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215026, P.R. China.
² Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; Labortory of Environmental Remediation and Functional Material, Suzhou Research Academy of North China Electric Power University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215026, P.R. China. Electronic address: yimei.zhang1@gmail.com.
³ Labortory of Environmental Remediation and Functional Material, Suzhou Research Academy of North China Electric Power University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215026, P.R. China.
⁴ Environmental Research Academy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.

PMID: 28282572
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.02.048

Abstract

The treatment of effluent containing Bisphenol A (BPA) was investigated experimentally using nitrogen-doped graphene aerogel (NGAs) as particle electrodes in a three-dimensional electrode reactor for the electrochemical treatment was studied. The effects of the cell voltage, pH, the ratio of NGAs mass to solution volume and repeated times on the removal efficiency were investigated. Compared with commercial carbon particle electrodes, the NGAs exhibited stronger activity to remove BPA simulated wastewater. For 15mgL^-1 of BPA solution, the degradation rate of BPA exceeded 90% after treatment for only 30min under the optimum conditions. The COD_Cr removal rate of BPA was 85%. Moreover, in the process of reused 50 times, the degradation rate of BPA can be kept in more than 85%. The COD_Cr removal rate was stable at about 73%. The intermediate products of electrochemical degradation of BPA were identified by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry liquid chromatography (LC-MS), and a probable BPA degradation pathway was proposed. It was considered that OH radicals by water electrolysis could constantly attack the aromatic ring to form various intermediates such as hydroxylated-BPA, isopropylphenol, hydroquinone, phenol and butantetraol, maleic acid, oxalic acid. These compounds were eventually mineralized by electrolysis into CO₂ and H₂O.

Keywords: Bisphenol A; Hydroxyl radical; Nitrogen-doped grapheme aerogel (NGAs); Particle electrode; Three-dimensional electrode.