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Electrochemical Oxidation and Advanced Oxidation Processes Using 3D Hexagonal Co3O4 Arrays Anode for 4-Nitrophenol Decomposition Coupled with Simultaneous CO2 Conversion to Liquid Fuels Via Flower-like CuO Cathode

Wednesday, 3 October 2018: 16:00
Universal 3 (Expo Center)
Z. Jian-Ping (Nanchang Hangkong University)
A novel electrocatalytic system was developed to realize one-pot conversion of organic pollutants into liquid fuels, such as methanol (CH3OH) and ethanol (C2H5OH). The process combines the catalytic oxidation of organic pollutants with electrocatalytic reduction of CO2. We first coupled the electrocatalytic process with SO4•− based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) for the degradation of 4-Nitrophenol (4-NP) using a 3D-hexagonal Co3O4 anode. In this step, 4-NP was mineralized to CO2 and then the CO2 was converted into CH3OH and C2H5OH by electrocatalytic reduction using a flower-like CuO cathode. Experimental results show the destruction of 4-NP (60 mL, 10 mg/L) can be as high as 99 %. And the yield of CH3OH and C2H5OH was 98.29 μmol L1 and 40.95 μmol L1, respectively, which represents a conversion of 41.8 % of 4-NP into liquid fuels and the electron efficiency was 73.1%. In addition, we found that 3D-hexagonal arrays of Co3O4 with different morphologies can be obtained by adding different amounts of urea. Also, we investigated the formation mechanism of the novel 3D-hexagonal Co3O4 arrays for the first time. A mechanism was proposed to explain the electrocatalytic steps involved in the conversion of 4-NP to CH3OH and C2H5OH and the synergetic effects between AOPs and electrocatalysis.