Recent advances in catalyst design, performance, and challenges of metal-heteroatom-co-doped biochar as peroxymonosulfate activator for environmental remediation

Ganapaty Manickavasagam; Chao He; Kun-Yi Andrew Lin; Mardiana Saaid; Wen-Da Oh

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.118919

Recent advances in catalyst design, performance, and challenges of metal-heteroatom-co-doped biochar as peroxymonosulfate activator for environmental remediation

Environ Res. 2024 Apr 16;252(Pt 2):118919. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118919. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ganapaty Manickavasagam¹, Chao He², Kun-Yi Andrew Lin³, Mardiana Saaid¹, Wen-Da Oh⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
³ Department of Environmental Engineering & Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture, National Chung Hsing University, 250, Kuo-Kuang Road, Taichung, Taiwan; Institute of Analytical and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
⁴ School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia. Electronic address: ohwenda@usm.my.

PMID: 38631468
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118919

Abstract

The escalation of global water pollution due to emerging pollutants has gained significant attention. To address this issue, catalytic peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation technology has emerged as a promising treatment approach for effectively decontaminating a wide range of pollutants. Recently, modified biochar has become an increasingly attractive as PMS activator. Metal-heteroatom-co-doped biochar (MH-BC) has emerged as a promising catalyst that can provide enhanced performance over heteroatom-doped and metal-doped biochar due to the synergism between metal and heteroatom in promoting PMS activation. Therefore, this review aims to discuss the fabrication pathways (i.e., internal vs external doping and pre-vs post-modification) and key parameters (i.e., source of precursors, synthesis methods, and synthesis conditions) affecting the performance of MH-BC as PMS activator. Subsequently, an overview of all the possible PMS activation pathways by MH-BC is provided. Subsequently, Also, the detection, identification, and quantification of several reactive species (such as, ^•OH, SO₄^•-, O₂^•-, ¹O₂, and high valent oxo species) generated in the catalytic PMS system by MH-BC are also evaluated. Lastly, the underlying challenges associated with poor stability, the lack of understanding regarding the interaction between metal and heteroatom during PMS activation and quantification of radicals in multi-ROS system are also deliberated.

Keywords: Biochar-based carbocatalyst; Metal-heteroatom-co-doping; Organic pollutant removal; Peroxymonosulfate activation; Wastewater treatment.

Publication types

Review