Dimethyl phthalate (DMP), a typical endocrine disruptor, has been placed on the “Priority Control Pollutant List” worldwide for its serious carcinogenic effects. Recently, photoelectrocatalytic oxidation (PEC) technology with fast reaction rate is fully capitalized on sewage treatment, however, trapped in short service life of photoelectrode and vague degradation mechanism. Based on this, an effective and economical photoelectrode (3D {001}TiO2/Ti) was proposed via in situ growth of TiO2 microspheres with near 100% {001} facets on Ti mesh, a 3D structure. The highest DMP removal efficiency (100.0%) and the minimum energy consumption (3.444×103 kWh mol-1) were obtained at 0.6 V in only 60 min, and its TOC removal achieved 89.4%. The 3D {001}TiO2/Ti photoelectrode additionally demonstrated outstanding stability and reusability that the removal rate still reached 97.7% even after eight degradation cycles. The above-mentioned great performance could be attributed to three reasons. First of all, highly exposed {001} facets of 3D {001}TiO2/Ti with high surface energy, offered plenty of active sites for PEC process. Secondly, {001}TiO2 in situ fabricated on the Ti substrates facilitated the efficient separation of photoinduced carriers and offered good combination. At last, the Ti mesh, a 3D network structure, were easy to be tailored and folded for subsequent practical applications. The effects of various influence factors such as the applied bias, pH and coexisting ions on DMP degradation were studied for practical applications. And the roles of active species (●OH, ●O2- and h+) playing in the PEC processes were researched. A referable and distinct mineralization mechanism was put forward as well, involving totally 11 possible intermediates, in which 4 kinds of ether compounds were newly discovered.

Highly efficient photoelectrocatalytic degradation of dimethyl phthalate over an economical 3D {001}TiO2/Ti photoelectrode

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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