<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" id="d1553931e132">Organic
amines are regarded as high toxic, refractory chemicals due to the great damage
on human body, and ecosystem. The treatment of organic amine wastewater involves the
removal of total nitrogen and toxic organics simultaneously, which is one of the biggest
difficulties in wastewater treatment. In this study, hazardous organic amine wastewater
was purified by a photocatalytic fuel cell (PFC) with efficient nitrogen removal and
organic degradation, and its chemical energy was recovered simultaneously based on
hydroxyl radical (HO·) and chlorine radical (Cl·) reaction in a novel TiO2/WO3 and
3D Cu nanowires modified Cu foam (CuNWs/CF) system. TiO2/WO3 heterojunction as photoanode
provided rapid charge separation and good stability, and the composite of poly-Si
enhanced the light harvest and charge transfer. HO· played critical role in degrading
organic amines, while Cl· was responsible for selectively oxidizing amine group or
NH4+ to N2. Besides, trace amount of NO2- and NO3- formed by over-oxidation was eliminated
on CuNWs/CF cathode due to large specific surface area and fast charge transfer. Moderate
Cl- concentration and initial pH had vital influence on strengthening Cl· and HO·
generation in the system, and the optimal conditions were 50 mM NaCl and pH = 7. For
methylamine, ethylamine and dimethylamine wastewater, the system showed total nitrogen
removal efficiency of 94.93%, 91.81%, 93.10% and total organic carbon removal of 58.47%,
53.57%, and 56.71% within 2 h, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding maximum power
densities of 2.49, 2.40, 2.27 mW cm-2 were also generated, respectively. The study
proposes an efficient, sustainable method for the treatment of hazardous organic amine
wastewater and simultaneous energy recovery.
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