Recent developments and advances in boron-doped diamond electrodes for electrochemical oxidation of organic pollutants

Electrochemical mineralization of uric acid with boron-doped diamond electrode: Factor analysis and degradation mechanism

In the present study, the mineralization performance and pathway of uric acid (UA) on boron-doped diamond (BDD) anodes were investigated. The oxidation behavior of UA on BDD surface was firstly tested through cyclic voltammetry measurements. The individual and joint effects of four quantitative parameters (applied current density, NaHCO₃ concentration, NaCl concentration and flow rate) on UA mineralization were then examined with Doehlert experimental design. The results acquired by statistical analysis revealed that NaCl concentration and applied current density displayed the most dominant roles on UA degradation, while the influences of NaHCO₃ concentration and flow rate were statistically insignificant. As a result, the following optimal conditions were reached: applied current density of 7.80 mA cm^-2, NaHCO₃ concentration of 6.0 mM, NaCl concentration of 9.0 mM and flow rate of 600 mL min^-1, which gave a TOC decay of 89.4%, a specific energy consumption of 125.36 KWh kg^-1 TOC, a combustion current efficiency of 15.0% and an electrical energy per order of 35.79 KWh m^-3 order^-1 within 30 min of electrolysis. Further results from LC/MS analysis confirmed the ring rupture of UA during the electrolysis, due to the attack of hydroxyl radicals and active chlorine species. Accordingly, two plausible degradation pathways of UA in bicarbonate and chloride media on BDD anode were proposed respectively.

Study of the atenolol degradation using a Nb/BDD electrode in a filter-press reactor

The present paper deals with the atenolol (ATL) degradation by advanced anodic oxidation using a boron-doped diamond anode supported on niobium (Nb/BDD). Cyclic voltammetry performed on this electrode revealed that it presents a high quality (diamond-sp³/sp²-carbon ratio), high potential for OER and that ATL can be oxidized directly and/or indirectly by the electrogenerated oxidants, such as hydroxyl radicals, persulfate ions and sulfate radicals. Electrolysis experiments demonstrated that ATL degradation and mineralization follow a mixed (first and zero) order kinetics depending on the applied current density. At high applied current densities, the amount of OH radicals is very high and the overall reaction is limited by the transport of ATL (pseudo first-order kinetics) whereas for low applied current densities, the rate of OH radicals generation at the anode is slower than the rate of arrival of ATL molecules (pseudo-zero order kinetics). Estimated values of k_zero and k_first based on the assumption of pseudo-zero or pseudo-first order kinetics were carried oud as a function of the supporting electrolyte concentration, indicating that both parameters increased with its concentration due the higher production of sulfate reactive species that play an important role in degradation. Finally, MCE increased with the decrease of current density, due to the lower amount of OH present in solution, since this species could be rapidly wasted in parasitic reactions; and the increase of sulfate concentration due to the more efficient production of persulfate.

Transformation of bisphenol A by electrochemical oxidation in the presence of nitrite and formation of nitrated aromatic by-products

In this contribution, the electrocatalytic abatement of bisphenol A (BPA) with boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode had been conducted in NaNO₂ electrolytes. Central composite design was used as statistical multivariate method to optimize the operating parameters adopted (applied current density, flow rate, concentration of NaNO₂ and initial pH). The results from response surface analysis indicated that pH was the most influential factor for TOC decay, and a maximum TOC decay of 63.7% was achieved under the optimized operating conditions (9.04 mA cm^-2 of applied current density, 400 mL min^-1 of flow rate, 10 mM of NaNO₂, 4.0 of initial pH and 60 min of electrolysis time). Besides, LC/MS technique was applied to identify the main reaction intermediates, and plenty of nitrated oligomers were detected at the end of the degradation. These by-products were generated via the coaction of coupling reaction of nitrated phenol and electrophilic substitution mediated by nitrogen dioxide radicals. Moreover, our results showed that the degree of nitration depended heavily on the employed initial nitrite concentration. This was one of the very few investigations dealing with nitrophenolic by-products in nitrite medium, and thus the findings exhibited important implications for electrochemical degradation of BPA and its related phenolic pollutants.

An optimization model for the treatment of perfluorocarboxylic acids considering membrane preconcentration and BDD electrooxidation

Treatment of persistent perfluorocarboxylic acids in water matrixes requires of strong oxidation conditions, as those achieved by boron doped diamond (BDD) electrooxidation (ELOX). However, large scale implementation of ELOX is still hindered by its high energy consumption and economical investment. In this work, we used process systems engineering tools to define the optimal integration of a membrane pre-concentration stage followed by the BDD electrolysis of the concentrate, to drastically reduce the costs of treatment of perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA, 100 mg L^-1) in industrial waste streams. A multistage membrane cascade system using nanofiltration (NF90 and NF270 membranes) was considered to achieve more sophisticated PFHxA separations. The aim was to minimize the total costs by determining the optimal sizing of the two integrated processes (membrane area per stage and anode area) and the optimal process variables (pre-concentration operating time, electrolysis time, input and output concentrations). The non-linear programming model (NLP) was implemented in the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS). The results showed that for a 2-log PFHxA abatement (99% removal), the optimal two membrane stages using the NF90 membrane obtains a 75.8% (6.4 $ m^-3) reduction of the total costs, compared to the ELOX alone scenario (26.5 $ m^-3). The optimized anode area and the energy savings, that were 85.3% and 88.2% lower than in ELOX alone, were the major contributions to the costs reduction. Similar results were achieved for a 3-log and 4-log PFHxA abatement, pointing out the promising benefits of integrating electrochemical oxidation with membrane pre-concentration through proper optimization for its large-scale application to waters impacted by perfluorocarboxylic acids.

Combined electrochemical processes for the efficient degradation of non-polar organochlorine pesticides

This study deals with the development of efficient and economic electrochemical treatment processes to confront the treatment of liquid wastes containing non-polar organochlorine pesticides. In previous works, it was demonstrated that it is possible to use electrocoagulation (EC) as a concentration technique for a model organochlorine pesticide (oxyfluorfen). Within this framework, the present work describes a process for the degradation of wastes containing non-polar organochlorines (oxyfluorfen or lindane) in two consecutive stages: 1) a first stage of concentration by electrocoagulation; 2) a second stage of electrochemical degradation by electro-oxidation (EO) or electro-Fenton (EF). The first result reached in the present work is that it is possible to remove close to 50% of both pollutants using EO and more that 94% using EF. Additionally, it was proved that the addition of a pre-concentration stage decreases by a factor of 20 the power consumption needed to deplete by EO the same amount of the initial pollutant. Moreover, when EF process is performed to the concentrated stream, the power consumption is further reduced, getting values (for 1-log removal) as low as 14.51 kWh m^-3 for oxyfluorfen decrease and 49.7 kWh m^-3 for lindane. These results strengthen the fact that the removal efficiency increases with the concentration of the pollutant and demonstrate that the combination of concentration steps and electrochemical degradation technologies is an efficient and promising alternative for the degradation of non-polar organochlorines.

Optimizing the Microstructure and Corrosion Resistance of BDD Coating to Improve the Service Life of Ti/BDD Coated Electrode

The short service life of the Ti/BDD coated electrode is the main reason that limits its practical use. In this paper, the effect of structural change on the service life was studied using Ti/BDD coated electrodes prepared with the arc plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. It was found that the microstructural defects and corrosion resistance of BDD coatings were the main factors affecting the electrode service life. By optimizing the process parameters in different deposition stages, reducing the structural defects and improving the corrosion resistance of the BDD coating were conducted successfully, which increased the service life of the Ti/BDD coated electrodes significantly. The lifetime of the Ti/BDD samples increased from 360 h to 655 h under the electrolysis condition with a current density of 0.5 A/cm², with an increase of 82%.

Sequential electrocoagulation-electrooxidation for virus mitigation in drinking water

Electrochemical water treatment is a promising alternative for small-scale and remote water systems that lack operational capacity or convenient access to reagents for chemical coagulation and disinfection. In this study, the mitigation of viruses was investigated using electrocoagulation as a pretreatment prior to electrooxidation treatment using boron-doped diamond electrodes. This research is the first to investigate a sequential electrocoagulation-electrooxidation treatment system for virus removal. Bench-scale, batch reactors were used to evaluate mitigation of viruses in variable water quality via: a) electrooxidation, and b) a sequential electrocoagulation-electrooxidation treatment train. Electrooxidation of two bacteriophages, MS2 and ΦX174, was inhibited by natural organic matter and turbidity, indicating the probable need for pretreatment. However, the electrocoagulation-electrooxidation treatment train was beneficial only in the model surface waters employed. In model groundwaters, electrocoagulation alone was as good or better than the combined electrocoagulation-electrooxidation treatment train. Reduction of human echovirus was significantly lower than one or both bacteriophages in all model waters, though bacteriophage ΦX174 was a more representative surrogate than MS2 in the presence of natural organic matter and turbidity. Compared to conventional treatment by ferric salt coagulant and free chlorine disinfection, the electrocoagulation-electrooxidation system was less effective in model surface waters but more effective in model groundwaters. Sequential electrocoagulation-electrooxidation was beneficial for some applications, though practical considerations may currently outweigh the benefits.

Fabrication of novel particle electrode γ-Al2O3@ZIF-8 and its application for degradation of Rhodamine B

Due to the high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area of zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF)-8, a secondary crystallization method was used to prepare a particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃@ZIF-8. According to the results from a field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD), the particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃ was successfully loaded with ZIF-8, and the BET surface area (1,433 m²/g) of ZIF-8 was over ten times that of γ-Al₂O₃. The key operation parameters of cell voltage, pH, initial RhB concentration and electrolyte concentration were all optimized. The observed rate constant (k_obs) of the pseudo-first-order kinetic model for the electrocatalytic oxidation (ECO) system with the particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃@ZIF-8 (15.2 × 10^-2 min^-1) was over five times higher than that of the system with the traditional particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃ (2.6 × 10^-2 min^-1). The loading of ZIF-8 on the surface of γ-Al₂O₃ played an important role in improving electrocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB), and the RhB removal efficiency of the three-dimensional (3D) electrocatalytic system with the particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃@ZIF-8 was 93.5% in 15 min, compared with 27.5% in 15 min for the particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃. The RhB removal efficiency was kept over 85% after five cycles of reuse for the 3D electrocatalytic system with the particle electrode of γ-Al₂O₃@ZIF-8.

Enhanced electrochemical supercapacitor performance with a three-dimensional porous boron-doped diamond film

A three-dimensional porous boron-doped diamond film is developed to enhance the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors in a wide potential window.