Abstract
This thesis manuscript presented the modification and application of carbon felt material for wastewater treatment accommodating biorefractory pollutants by electro-Fenton (EF) process. First of all, the optimal condition of EF treatment for dye/pharmaceuticals removal using commercial carbon felt (CF) was investigated. From that, the degradation pathways in the relationship with the toxicity of their by-products were built and proposed. Concerning the modification for commercial CF, a new cathode was set up by electrochemical deposition of reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO) on the surface of CF via various reduction ways. The structure property of modified electrode was investigated by SEM, XRD, XPS, BET and contact angle measurement. The new cathode exhibited good stability and high treatment efficiency when it was applied to decompose Acid Orange 7 (AO7), a model azo dye molecule. The EF treatment was also developed further by contributing a new Fuel-cell Fenton system without any external power supply. In this approach, AO7 was continuously chosen to degrade by electro-Fenton process at a designed cathode (Carbon Felt (CF)/porous Carbon (pC)) supplied by direct clean electrical energy from abiotic glucose oxidation at a CF/gold anode (CF@Au). The catalytic properties of both anode and cathode induced a stable output current density of 360.3 ± 51.5 mA m−2 at 400 ± 50 mV, maintained for long-term period. As a consequence, 90 % of the initial concentration of the pollutant, identified by HPLC analysis, was eliminated upon extended EF degradation for 10 h, and the cell power output of 170 mW m-2 was stable at least for two months. Hence, this first proof of concept of an abiotic Fuel cell – Fenton system demonstrated a high efficiency towards pollutant degradation with a huge potential in both energy-related areas and environmental protection.