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Facilely Prepared N-Doped Graphene/Pt/TiO2 as an Efficient Anode for Acetaminophen Degradation

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Abstract

This study developed nitrogen-doped graphene/Pt/TiO2 (N-GN/Pt/TiO2) as anode to effectively degrade aminophenol (APAP) in electrocatalytic process. Due to the different physicochemical properties of graphene with various N species loading, the efficiency of catalysts was novelty discussed. The morphology, N-doped content/species, and the graphene defects of the catalyst were analyzed by TEM, FTIR, XPS, EA, and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that the doping morphology of the N atoms gradually shifted from pyridinic N and pyrrolic N to graphitic N with increased hydrothermal time, in order to decrease the defect degrees and redox activity. However, the conductivity of material increased with the graphitic N generation. The best APAP degradation efficiency (100% with 20 mA, 1 g/L NaCl, and initial pH 3.0) can be achieved with 1.5-N-GN/Pt/TiO2 (mainly pyridinic N and pyrrolic N doping). A detailed investigation was conducted to determine the oxidation intermediates of APAP using GC-MS analysis. Finally, a possible degradation pathway was proposed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Fujian province Science and Technology project Foundation (2017I01010015), Xiamen Technology project Foundation (3502Z20173050, 3502Z20140057, 3502Z20153025, 3502Z20173052), Quanzhou Technology project Foundation (2016Z074, 2018z002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Rong Sun, Wan Huang, Qian Zhang & Jun-ming Hong

  2. Xiamen Engineering Research Center of Industrial Wastewater Biochemical Treatment, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Rong Sun, Wan Huang, Qian Zhang & Jun-ming Hong

  3. Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Biochemical Technology, Huaqiao University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Rong Sun, Wan Huang, Qian Zhang & Jun-ming Hong

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  1. Rong Sun
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  2. Wan Huang
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Correspondence to Jun-ming Hong.

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Sun, R., Huang, W., Zhang, Q. et al. Facilely Prepared N-Doped Graphene/Pt/TiO2 as an Efficient Anode for Acetaminophen Degradation. Catal Lett 148, 2418–2431 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-018-2466-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-018-2466-5

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