The role of activated carbon on the removal of p-nitrophenol in an integrated three-phase electrochemical reactor

Three-phase electrochemical reactor is still far from concerned in wastewater treatment in order to improve electrochemical treatment efficiency especially when the concentrations of organic pollutants are relatively low. This paper presents a novel process integrated electrocatalysis and activated carbon (AC) adsorption in a fluidization mode for p-nitrophenol (PNP) abatement, with special attention on probing the role of AC. Sparged by external gas (e.g., O2), the electrochemical reactor is actually a three-phase (gas, liquid, solid) reactor. By this one-step integrated process, the treatment efficiency was significantly promoted where PNP of initial concentration 150 mg l−1 could be completely removed in no more than 30 min and it kept good performance for five consecutive runs, showing potential application for environmental remediation. In the integrated process, AC is in a dynamic state of adsorption and in situ electrochemical regeneration by the attack of electrogenerated hydroxyl radical on organic pollutants. When oxygen is sparged into the process, hydrogen peroxide can be formed by cathodic reduction and then decomposed by catalytic reaction on AC, which further promotes organic pollutants degradation.