Resourcelized conversion of poultry feces to ordered carbon with electron poor/rich microregions for water purification induced by peroxymonosulfate

Abstract

For the sustainable reutilization of poultry feces (PF) to reduce environmental pollution, we present a novel approach for converting PF into a highly effective catalyst, consisting of trace copper (Cu) and sulfur (S) linked with ordered graphitized carbon (CS/CPF) for wastewater purification. Raman and EPR results verified that the disorderly organic matters in PF are transformed into orderly graphene structures that complexed with Cu to form large numbers of electron-poor/rich microregions on CS/CPF surface. The electrons from electron-rich organic pollutants can be directly captured by dissolved oxygen (DO) to produce abundant reactive oxygen species due to the enhanced electron polarization via the construction of Cu–S–C bond bridge on CS/CPF surface, which greatly enhance the removal efficiency of pollutants. CS/CPF achieves 100% removal for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) in just 10 min after adding trace peroxymonosulfate (PMS), keeping efficient catalytic activity after continuous reactions for 240 h. This strategy offers a practical and sustainable solution for the efficient resource recovery of poultry feces.