ZIF-8/balsa wood derived N-doped porous carbon as self-supporting electro-Fenton cathode for efficient antibiotics degradation

Efficient electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) based on carbon catalysts are highly promising candidates for green environmental remediation technologies. Wood derived N-doped porous carbon (WNPC) was prepared the balsa wood with in-situ growth of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) was used as precursor. WNPC acted as self-supporting electric Fenton cathode with high yield and selectivity (96 %) of in-situ H2O2 generation, which effectively avoided the use binder for powder material. Owing to abundant N-doping and oxygen functional groups, the H2O2 yield of WNPC was three times that of balsa wood derived carbon (WC) in electro-Fenton system. The graphite-N promoted the electron transfer, while the pyridinic-N could enhance the selectivity of the 2e- ORR for H2O2 generation. Furthermore, the specific surface area of WNPC was 10 times of WC, with improved hydrophilicity and accelerated electron transfer. The removal efficiency of tetracycline hydrochloride (TC) achieved 91 % within 120 min in electro-Fenton system with WNPC and Fe2+, which was much higher than that with WC (63 %). Free radical scavenging and electron paramagnetic resonance experiments confirmed that ·OH and O2–· were the main active substances for TC degradation in electro-Fenton system. In addition, WNPC has good stability, reusability, and comparable degradation performance of various organic pollutants, and also had efficient degradation performance with actual water. This research proposed a novel strategy to construct efficient electro-Fenton catalyst with wood as precursor, which provides an advancing electrocatalytic methods to achieve efficient and environmentally conscious water purification.