Green approach for photocatalytic Cu(II)-EDTA degradation over TiO2 : toward environmental sustainability
Author
Lee, Siew Siang
Bai, Hongwei
Liu, Zhaoyang
Sun, Darren Delai
Date of Issue
2015School
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Related Organization
Public Utilities Board (PUB)
Energy Research Institute
Energy Research Institute
Version
Accepted version
Abstract
A green approach was successfully developed to reap three environmental benefits simultaneously: (1) clean water production, (2) hydrogen (H2) generation, and (3) well-dispersed in situ Cu2+ recovery for direct TiO2–CuO composite reclamation, by exploiting the synergistic integration of photocatalytic reaction of Cu-EDTA and one-dimensional (1D) ultralong and ultrathin TiO2 nanofibers. In this light-initiated system, Cu-EDTA was oxidized by TiO2 thus releasing Cu2+ which was reduced and recovered through uniform adsorption onto the long and porous TiO2 surface. A win–win platform was thus attained, on which Cu was recovered while providing active sites for H2 generation via photoreduction of H2O and enhancing photo-oxidation of remaining intermediate oxidation byproducts. Experimental results showed a H2 generation rate of 251 μmol/h concomitantly with TOC reduction. The used TiO2 nanofibers deposited with Cu were reclaimed directly as the TiO2–CuO composite after a facile heat treatment without additional chemicals and subsequently reusable for photocatalytic treatment of other wastewater (glycerol) to cogenerate H2 and clean water under both UV–visible and visible light. This study expounds a significant advancement through an ingenious integration which enhances the environmental sustainability of Cu-EDTA treatment via TiO2 photocatalysis. It also represents a promising and adoptable approach to synthesize other functional composite nanomaterials in a green manner thus broadening its environmental application spectrum, as it promotes industrial environmental management via waste segregation and motivates research to recover more resources from wastewater.
Subject
DRNTU::Engineering::Environmental engineering::Water treatment
Type
Journal Article
Series/Journal Title
Environmental science & technology
Rights
© 2015 American Chemical Society. This is the author created version of a work that has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by Environmental Science & Technology, American Chemical Society. It incorporates referee’s comments but changes resulting from the publishing process, such as copyediting, structural formatting, may not be reflected in this document. The published version is available at: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es504711e].
Collections
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es504711e
Get published version (via Digital Object Identifier)