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Effective hydrogen production and coupling degradation of organics (4-nitrophenol, methylene blue, and Rhodamine B) in wastewater by electrospun PAN@Fe 0 composite nanofibers.

Yan Xu
Published in: Journal of environmental management (2024)
The pursuit of clean energy generation and environmental preservation is of utmost importance for societal progress. However, couple clean energy production and pollution control is still a difficulty. In this study, a novel electrospun composite mat, with nano zero valent iron (Fe 0 , nZVI) encapsulated into polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers was acted as a catalyst. The activation energy (E a ) for the hydrolysis of NaBH 4 to produce hydrogen is 22 kJ·mol -1 , hydrogen atom utilization efficiency (HGE) of NaBH 4 is 60.80%. Three kinds of organic dyes 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), methylene blue (MB), and Rhodamine B (RhB) were served as the model pollutant, to construct NaBH 4 -organic system for energy production and pollution reduction. The NaBH 4 -organic system demonstrates a collaborative capability to simultaneously remove organic pollutants and generate hydrogen, with a coupling equilibrium point between the two processes. The hydrogen generation rate (HGR) and HGE increased with the concentration of pollutants increased. The degradation of 4-NP, MB, and RhB followed pseudo-first-order kinetics, with RhB degrading dosage 20 and 44 times higher than 4-NP and MB, respectively. H 2 and H· contributed to the organic degradation. nZVI directly participated in the formation H 2 and H·. PAN@Fe 0 possessed good recyclability and moderate cost. The degradation process adhered to the classical surface reaction controlled Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model. The integration of synergistic production capacity and pollutant degradation aligns well with the principles of green chemistry and sustainable development. This study demonstrates a novel approach to no precursor loss catalysts preparation, efficient production clean H 2 , advanced treatment of dye-containing wastewater, carbon neutral operation of sewage treatment plant.
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