Abstract
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) remediation remains a challenge, especially for real samples such as aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) for fire-fighting and PFAS foam fractionate concentrates (FF) produced from the water treatment processes. In this study, electrochemical advanced oxidation process (EAOP) using boron-doped diamond (BDD) anode to activate persulfate (PS) was investigated. The results shown that the electrochemical activation of PS significantly enhanced the removal of PFAS, including oxidation and defluorination. Under the optimal conditions (initial current density of 40 mA/cm2, 5 mM PS, initial pH 3.8), both 50 μM PFOA and 50 μM PFOS reached ∼100 % removal within 2 h, and 60.4 % and 33.1 % defluorination, respectively. By monitoring the degradation intermediates, the degradation pathways and kinetics of PFOA and PFOS were studied, which indicated the excellent capability of BDD/PS process towards the PFAS remediation. In addition, the optimal BDD/PS process was applied to degrade AFFF and FF samples, and the total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay was used to measure the defluorination effect. The results were unprecedented with a surprising >100 % defluorination for 28 PFAS tested. This research can contribute to the development of a sustainable and efficient technology for PFAS remediation, ultimately mitigating the environmental and health risks associated with these persistent contaminants.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call