Insights into degradation of pharmaceutical pollutant atenolol via electrochemical advanced oxidation processes with modified Ti 4 O 7 electrode: Efficiency, stability and mechanism.

A novel active Ce-doped Ti ₄ O ₇ (Ti/Ti ₄ O ₇ -Ce) electrode was prepared and evaluated for improvement of the refractory pollutants degradation efficiency in Electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs). The results showed that the addition of Ce in Ti/Ti ₄ O ₇ electrode leading to great impact on •OH generation rate and electrode stability compared to pristine Ti/Ti ₄ O ₇ electrode. Ti/Ti ₄ O ₇ -Ce electrode presented efficient oxidation capacity for pharmaceutical pollutant atenolol (ATL) in EAOPs, which could be attributed to the improvement of indirect oxidation mediated by electro-generated •OH, as the amount of •OH production was 16.5% higher than that in Ti/Ti ₄ O ₇ within 120 min. The operational conditions greatly influenced the ATL degradation. The degradation efficiency of ATL increased as the current density, the degradation efficiency reached 100% under pH 4, but it just removed 81% of ATL under pH 10 after 120 min treatment. Results also suggested that the inhibiting effect from the ATL degradation was mostly associated with the decreased oxidation capacity induced by water hardness and natural organic matter (NOM). It displayed a satisfactory durability after 40 cycles of experimental detections in this research. The results of study suggested that Ti/Ti ₄ O ₇ -Ce was a promising electrode for the efficient degradation of PPCPs-polluted wastewater and provided constructive suggestion for the refractory pollutants of EAOPs.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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