(169c) Peracetic Acid Activated By Reduced Graphene Oxide Catalytic Membrane for Micro-Pollutants Removal from Agricultural Wastewater

Emerging recalcitrant micropollutants (MPs) with high toxicity are frequently detected in various water sources, including 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and its derivatives which are one of the most used herbicides in the world. Recently, peracetic acid (PAA) has been applied as a potent yet cost-effective oxidant. Developing PAA activation methods based on the direct electron-transfer (DET) mechanism are essential to the rational design of robust PAA oxidation systems targeting water decontamination. 2-D carbon materials with high electrical conductivity like graphene oxide (GO) and reduced GO (rGO) could mediate the DET activation of PAA. Herein, we demonstrated, for the first time, an rGO membrane activated PAA catalytic oxidation filtration system realizing MPs removal. We first investigated the oxidation efficacy of the rGO, PAA, and MPs mixture system and evaluated the MPs removal ratio in batch experiments. The rGO/PAA systems demonstrated over 80% removal of 2,4-D compared to only 20% removal using only PAA. The PAA and MPs mixture filtrating through an rGO membrane demonstrated over 50% removal of 2,4-D. Additionally, the rGO membrane systems exhibited non-chemical add-in into the feed, reducing the need for follow-up purification steps. Moreover, a 50-nm-thick rGO modified Nylon membrane used to purify wastewater containing 2,4-D in a crossflow system exhibited more than 30% catalytic removal of 2,4-D. This high removal efficiency for agricultural organic contaminants suggests its potential application in degrading MPs.