Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a recalcitrant emerging contaminant, has been recently detected in surface waters worldwide. There are significant concerns about its persistence, bioaccumulation and potential adverse effects on human bodies like cancer, liver disease, and disturbing immune system. Effective degradation approaches are lacking because of the strong carbon-fluoride bond energy. In this work, the degradability of PFOA by hexagonal boron nitride (BN) was discovered upon irradiation with 254nm UVC light. The results demonstrated that the rate of PFOA degradation using BN is ~2× faster than with P25-TiO<sub>2</sub> at their optimum dosage. The ability of photodegrading PFOA with h-BN was unexpected and unreported since h-BN should have no light absorption at 254 nm due to its wide bandgap (~5.9 eV). Defect-abundance BN prepared by ball milling method possessed better light absorbance as confirmed by UV-vis. An enhanced photoactivity was observed as well with ~2.5 improvements compared to BN as received. Hence, the hypothesis mechanism of PFOA degradation using BN was explored that defects on the surface of BN contribute to PFOA degradation. Additionally, GenX, a PFOA substitute, was also tested over BN and showed the activity within 2 hours. Finally, BN showed good reusability and stability for treatment PFOA with the simulated drinking water over 3 cycles. These findings indicate that PFOA remediation is possible without the use of chemical reagents.<br/>

Efficient photocatalytic PFOA degradation over boron nitride

ACS Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.