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Improving generation of H2O2 and •OH at copper hexacyanocobaltate/graphene/ITO composite electrode for degradation of levofloxacin in photo-electro-Fenton process

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Abstract

In this work, copper hexacyanocobaltate was electro-deposited at amino-graphene-coated indium-tin-oxide glass to form multifunctional heterogeneous catalyst (CuCoG/ITO), which was confirmed by field emission scanning microscope, infrared spectra, X-ray diffraction, and electro-chemistry techniques. A novel heterogeneous photo-electro-Fenton-like system was established using CuCoG/ITO as an air-diffusion electrode, in which hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radical (•OH) could be simultaneously generated by air O2 reduction. The productive rate of •OH could reached to 70.5 μmol h−1 at − 0.8 V with 300 W visible light irradiation at pH 7.0, 0.1 M PBS. Levofloxacin could be quickly degraded at CuCoG/ITO during heterogeneous photo-electro-Fenton process in neutral media with a first-order kinetic constant of 0.49 h−1.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article [and its supplementary information files].

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, U1407110), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (“Science and Technology to Boost Economy 2020” Key Project, SQ2020YFF0412719 and SQ2020YFF0404901), and Anhui Province Key Research and Development Plan (JZ2018AKKG0332/1804e03020316).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anhui Key Lab of Controllable Chemical Reaction & Material Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Xiao-Yuan Lv, Guan-Ping Jin, Ding-Kun Yuan, Yan-Feng Ding & Peng-Xing Long

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  1. Xiao-Yuan Lv
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Contributions

In the absence of specific instructions and in research fields where it is possible to describe discrete efforts, the Publisher recommends authors to include contribution statements in the work that specifies the contribution of every author in order to promote transparency. These contributions should be listed at the separate title page.

Xiao-Yuan Lv did 60% experiment and wrote this draft.

Guan-Ping Jin, as the only supervisor, told the students and did the experiments. She reviewed and rewrote this paper again.

Ding-Kun Yuan did XPS data.

Yan-Feng Ding and Peng-Xing Long did partly levofloxacin degradation experiment.

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Correspondence to Guan-Ping Jin.

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Highlights

• Amino-graphene and carbon fibers composite shows good electro-catalysis on the O2 reduction to H2O2 with larger surface and operability.

• Nano-copper hexacyanocobaltate is a promising photo-electro-catalyst for both O2 reduction to H2O2 and H2O2 reduction to •OH.

• Copper hexacyanocobaltate/amino-graphene coating ITO electrode could be used as multifunctional air-diffusion electrode during EF or PEF process.

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Lv, XY., Jin, GP., Yuan, DK. et al. Improving generation of H2O2 and •OH at copper hexacyanocobaltate/graphene/ITO composite electrode for degradation of levofloxacin in photo-electro-Fenton process. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 17636–17647 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11883-w

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