Highly efficient electro-peroxone enhanced by oxygen-doped carbon nanotubes with triple role of in-situ H2O2 generation, activation and catalytic ozonation

The oxygen-doped carbon nanotubes coated on the carbon felt acted as cathode to enhance the electro-peroxone (OCNT-EP) process. Owing to the introduction of oxygen-containing functional groups and defect sites, the OCNT modified cathode could achieve in-situ H2O2 generation, activation, and catalytic ozonation in the EP process. The OCNT-EP showed a 2.3-folds apparent first-order rate constant (k) compared with the EP process using CNT cathode (CNT-EP) for atrazine (ATZ) degradation. According to the processes comparison, quenching experiments, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis and determination of hydroxyl radical, it was proved that more center dot OH and O-1(2) were generated by the in-situ H2O2 activation and catalytic ozonation in the OCNT-EP process. Especially, this process improved pollutants degradation under acidic condition for the in-situ H2O2 activation and catalytic ozonation, expanding the pH application range of the EP process with a lower energy consumption (0.10 kWh/g ATZ). What' more, the OCNT modified cathode performed excellent stability with 20 cycle tests, and demonstrated all improved degradation rate (21.7% 78.0%) for various pollutants (carbamazepine, sulfamethazine, phenol and 2,4-dichlorophenol). Therefore, the OCNT-EP process could be considered as a promising and enhanced EP process for wastewater treatment.