Persulfate enhanced pollutants oxidation efficiency and power generation in photocatalytic fuel cell with anodic BiOCl/BiOI and cathodic copper cobalt oxide

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, a photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) system consisting of an anode with BiOI/BiOCl and a cathode with copper cobalt oxide, was investigated in to treating tetracycline and coking wastewater. Treating tetracycline (initial 100 mg/L), adding 20 mM persulfate (PS) in this PFC increased the pollutants degradation (from 74% in 1 h to 95% in 10 min, the kinetic constant from 0.021 min−1 and 0.296 min−1) and current density generation (from 1.7 × 10−3 mA/cm2 to 1.4 × 10−2 mA/cm2) and the open circuit voltage from 0.15 V to 0.38 V. Treating coking wastewater, the PFC/PS removed 90% TOC (initial 162 mg / L, pH 5) in 1 h, generating a current density of 1.2 × 10−2 mA/cm2 and open circuit voltage 0.42 V. The synergistic performance of PFC/PS is stable. The effects of persulfate concentration, initial pH and pollutant concentration on the kinetics and PFC performance were investigated and the synergy mechanism in PFC/PS was discussed.