Pulse-driven electrocatalysis with engineered wooden electrode for high-efficiency, energy-saving and sustainable water treatment
Date
2025
Authors
Zhong, S.
Zhou, H.
Ren, S.
Hu, K.
Ren, W.
Chen, J.
Zhu, Z.-S.
Duan, X.
Wang, S.
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Journal article
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nature water, 2025; 3(8):890-901
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Shuang Zhong, Hongyu Zhou, Shiying Ren, Kunsheng Hu, Wei Ren, Junwen Chen, Zhong-Shuai Zhu, Xiaoguang Duan, Shaobin Wang
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Abstract
Electro-Fenton technology holds great promise for wastewater treatment but is constrained by the high cost of electrodes, high-purity oxygen input, rapid catalyst loss and sludge generation. Here we present a low-cost and self-supporting wooden electrode with pulsed excitation of ambient air and Fe3+ reduction, overcoming all the above issues in electro-Fenton processes. The electrode was fabricated via controlled wood delignification and carbonization, transforming into a self-supporting porous and functionalized architecture for efficient oxygen capture from air and two-electron reduction to H2O2. Periodic positive voltage pulses restored iron species from the electrode for in situ generation of radicals, minimizing surface iron accumulation and securing periodical electrode refreshing. A scaled-up system maintains a long-term operation in 30 days for bisphenol A removal without a performance loss at a low energy consumption of 0.013 kWh per gram of bisphenol A. This wooden-pulsed electro-Fenton system provides a low-cost and sustainable solution to practical wastewater treatment.
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© 2025, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.