Abstract
Both glyphosate (Gly) and glufosinate (Glu) are commonly used as herbicides, which has caused rising concerns about their impact on the environment and human health. Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a newly developed energy-efficient water treatment technique that effectively removes inorganic and small organic molecules under the electric field. In this work, a carbon electrode-based CDI device was used in the electro-removal of Gly and Glu in an aqueous solution with an excellent removal rate of up to 95 % under various conditions. Furthermore, maximum electro-removal rates of 1.99 μmol∙cm−2∙min−1 for Gly and 1.33 μmol∙cm−2∙min−1 for Glu were also achieved, except with super-high removal rates of 100 % (Gly) and 97.6 % (Glu) in actual Gly and Glu-containing lake water, demonstrating the feasibility of the CDI device in real aqueous systems. In-situ electro-oxidation that occurred during the electrosorption process was confirmed by analyzing the three-electrode system-based electrochemical behaviors and tracing the time-dependent changes of the suspicious degradation products. Transition state (TS) search and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were employed to study the microscopic processes theoretically, revealing the degradation pathways and thermodynamic characteristics of Gly and Glu. This research presents a novel avenue for the decomposition and removal of herbicides from water, leveraging the inherent side reactions of CDI systems as an advantage to decontaminate organic pollutants.
Published Version
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