Recovery of CuO/C catalyst from spent anode material in battery to activate peroxymonosulfate for refractory organic contaminants degradation

It is critical to developing low-cost and efficient catalysts to activate peroxymonosulfate for the degradation of organic contaminants, whereas it remains challenging. In the study, a recycle method to synthesize efficient heterogeneous catalysts was developed by exploiting the anode electrode of spent lithium-ion batteries as the raw material based on a one-step calcination process. The recycled anode material (AM) composed of copper oxide and graphite carbon was capable of efficiently activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade a wide range of organic contaminants. In addition, an investigation was conducted on the effect of reactive parameters (e.g., catalyst dose, PMS dose, RhB concentration, and coexisting matters). Besides, the AM/PMS process could exhibit high effectiveness at a broad pH range (3-10) and in a real water matrix. The redox cycle of Cu(II)/Cu(I) in the AM acted as the predominated force to effectively facilitate the PMS activation for the formation of oxygen species, in which the SO4 center dot- and O-1(2) exerted a primary effect. Moreover, the non-radical pathway of electron transfer between RhB and PMS facilitated the removal of RhB. In this study, a reclamation approach was developed for the recycling of spent LIBs anodes, and insights into the development of catalysts in SR-AOPs were gained.