Electrochemical properties of humic acid and its novel applications: A tip of the iceberg

Caiqin Wang; Tingfeng Cheng; Daoyong Zhang; Xiangliang Pan

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160755

Electrochemical properties of humic acid and its novel applications: A tip of the iceberg

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Mar 10:863:160755. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160755. Epub 2022 Dec 10.

Authors

Caiqin Wang¹, Tingfeng Cheng², Daoyong Zhang¹, Xiangliang Pan³

Affiliations

¹ College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology for Industrial Pollution Control of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310014, China.
² College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.
³ College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China; Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology for Industrial Pollution Control of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310014, China. Electronic address: panxl@zjut.edu.cn.

PMID: 36513238
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160755

Abstract

The widely existed humic acid (HA) with abundant redox-active groups has been considered to play an important role in biogeochemistry in sediments and soils. Recent studies reported that HA showed great performance in terms of electron transfer capacity (up to HA_EDC = 94 mmol e^-/mol C, HA_EAC = 42 mmol e^-/mol C). Since HA is widely available, inexpensive and environmentally friendly, the electrochemistry of HA has been explored to apply in many fields, such as environmental remediation, detection sensor and energy storage. Whereas, these prospective applications of HA and their electrochemical principles were lack of a comprehensive summary. In this review, the electrochemical properties and the prospective electrochemical applications of HA were summarized. Simultaneously, the existing problems like shortages of traditional electrochemical characterization of HA, and future research directions about HA electrochemistry were prospected. This review provides a deeper understanding of HA electrochemistry, and also inspires ideas for environmental remediation, detection sensor and energy storage by exploring the potential application values of HA.

Keywords: Detection sensor; Electrochemical principles; Electrochemical properties; Energy storage; Environmental remediation; Humic acid (HA).

Publication types

Review