Metal oxide particle electrodes for degradation of high concentration phenol wastewater via electrocatalytic advanced oxidation

High-concentration phenol wastewater is pollutant of concern that pose significant risks to human health and the environment. Three-dimensional electrocatalytic oxidation is one of the most promising wastewater treatment technologies because of its high treatment efficiency, low energy consumption and low secondary pollution. Lower-cost and higher-performance particles still faces great challenges. In this work, metal oxide particle electrodes were prepared using granular activated carbon（GAC） as a substrate to study the degradation of phenol by three-dimensional electrocatalytic oxidation. GAC particle electrodes loaded with different monometallic oxides（Mn, Fe, Co, Ce） and bimetallic oxides（Fe and Ce） were prepared by the impregnation method. The effectiveness of the particle electrodes in degrading phenol was greatly improved after active components loading. Among all monometallic oxide particle electrodes, the concentration degradation efficiency was in the order of Ce/GAC > Co/GAC >Mn/GAC > Fe/GAC, and the COD degradation efficiency was Ce/GAC > Fe/GAC > Co/GAC >Mn/GAC. After optimizing the loading metal type and loading amount, it was found that the 1.1% Fe-2.7% Ce/GAC particle electrode perform the best, with a phenol degradation efficiency of 95.48%, a COD degradation rate of 94.35%, an energy consumption of 0.75 k W·h·kg-1COD. This lower-cost and higher-performance particle highlights a reliable route for solving the problem of particle electrode materials limiting the efficient treatment of phenol-containing wastewater.