Chloride ion enhanced oxidant-free in situ degradation of Ni-EDTA by electrochemical process with boron-doped diamond electrodes

Conventional advanced oxidation processes were used to treat heavy metal complexes. However, a considerable amount of oxidants was required to enable effective oxidative degradation, which led to a significant increase of the treatment costs and subsequent difficulties in the sludge disposal. Based on the abundance of anions in heavy metal wastewater, the effects of anions on the in-situ degradation of Ni-EDTA in an oxidant-free electrochemical system with boron-doped diamond (BDD) as the anode were investigated. The presence of Cl- was found to exert a significant effect on improving the degradation process. Moreover, pH had little effect on the removal of nickel (Ni) and Ni-EDTA within a specific pH range (1 < pH < 9). The removal efficiencies of Ni and TOC reached 100 % and 77.45 %, respectively, at pH 2.16 with 0.4 M NaCl electrolyte, 2 mM Ni-EDTA concentration, and a current density of 50 mA/cm2. •OH and Cl• played crucial roles in the removal of Ni-EDTA by disrupting the chelation sites of Ni and EDTA molecules. The released Ni2+ ions could active the H2O2 in-situ generated at the cathode to produce •OH. The formation of the precipitation products such as NiOOH, Ni(OH)2, and NiCO3 in the Cl-/BDD system were conform based on the XRD and XPS analyses, which suggested the possible pathways for the removal of Ni2+ and Ni3+. Finally, the possible degradation pathways of Ni-EDTA were proposed based on the identification of intermediate products using UPLC-MS.