Photo-electrocatalytic based removal of acetaminophen: Application of visible light driven heterojunction based BiVO4/BiOI photoanode

Photo-electrocatalytic based removal of acetaminophen: Application of visible light driven heterojunction based BiVO4/BiOI photoanode

Ali, A.Z. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
Wu, Y. (Student TU Delft)
Doekhi-Bennani, Y. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
van der Hoek, J.P. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Waternet)

2023

The presence of organic micro-pollutants (OMPs) in wastewater treatment effluents is becoming a major threat to the water safety for aquatic and human health. Photo-electrocatalytic based advanced oxidation process (AOP) is one of the emerging and effective techniques to degrade OMPs through oxidative mechanism. This study investigated the application of heterojunction based BiVO4/BiOI photoanode for acetaminophen (40 μg L−1) removal in demineralized water. Photoanodes were fabricated by electrodeposition of BiVO4 and BiOI photocatalytic layers. Optical (UV–vis diffusive reflectance spectroscopy), structural (XRD, SEM, EDX) and opto-electronic (IPCE) characterization confirmed the successful formation of heterojunction for enhanced charge separation efficiency. The heterojunction photoanode showed incident photon to current conversion efficiency of 16% (λmax = 390 nm) at an external voltage of 1 V under AM 1.5 standard illumination. The application of the BiVO4/BiOI photoanode in the removal of acetaminophen at 1 V (external bias) vs Ag/AgCl under simulated sunlight showed 87% removal efficiency within the first 120 min compared to 66% removal efficiency of the BiVO4 photoanode. Similarly, combining BiVO4 and BiOI exhibited 57% increase in first order removal rate coefficient compared to BiVO4. The photoanodes also showed moderate stability and reusability by showing 26% decrease in overall degradation efficiency after three cycles of each 5 h experiment. The results obtained in this study can be considered as a stepping stone towards the effective removal of acetaminophen as an OMP present in wastewater.

Organic micro-pollutants
Advanced oxidation process
Photoelectrocatalysis
Heterojunction photoanodes
BiVO4/BiOI
Acetaminophen

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:17490fa1-ec01-438d-afe5-f0ae3100c3a6

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.138322

0045-6535

Chemosphere, 324

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 A.Z. Ali, Y. Wu, Y. Doekhi-Bennani, J.P. van der Hoek