Carbon Fiber-Based Flow-Through Electrode System (FES) for Water Disinfection via Direct Oxidation Mechanism with a Sequential Reduction-Oxidation Process.

Flow-through configuration for electrochemical disinfection is considered as a promising approach to minimize the formation of toxic byproducts and energy consumption via the enhanced convective mass transport as compared with conventional flow-by one. Under this hydrodynamic condition, it is essential to ascertain the effect of sequential electro-redox processes with the cathode/anode then anode/cathode arrangements on disinfection performance. Here, carbon fiber felt (CFF) was utilized to construct two flow-through electrode systems (FESs) with sequential reduction-oxidation (cathode-anode) or oxidation-reduction (anode-cathode) processes to systematically compare their disinfection performance toward a model Escherichia coli ( E. coli) pathogen. In-situ sampling and live/dead backlight staining experiments revealed that E. coli inactivation mainly occurred on anode via an adsorption-inactivation-desorption process. In reduction-oxidation system, after the cathode-pretreatment, bulk solution pH increased significantly, leading to the negative charge of E. coli cells. Hence, E. coli cells were adsorbed and inactivated easily on the subsequent anode, finally resulting in its much better disinfection performance and energy efficiency than the oxidation-reduction system. Application of 3.0 V resulted in ∼6.5 log E. coli removal at 1500 L m-2 h-1 (50 mL min-1), suggesting that portable devices can be designed from CFF-based FES with potential application for point-of-use water disinfection.

Metagenomics analysis of the key functional genes related to biofouling aggravation of reverse osmosis membranes after chlorine disinfection.

Chlorine disinfection is a common technology to control biofouling in the pretreatment of the reverse osmosis (RO) system for wastewater reclamation. However, chlorine disinfection could even aggravate the RO membrane biofouling because of the changes of microbial community structure. In this study, the mechanism of biofilm formation and EPS secretion after chlorine disinfection was investigated by analyzing the genes coding quorum sensing, exopolysaccharide biosynthesis, and amino acid biosynthesis. After 1, 5, and 15 mg-Cl2/L chlorine disinfection, the relative abundances of the functional genes all increased significantly. Compared with the control group, chlorine-resistant bacteria (Acidovorax, Arenimonas, and Pseudomonas) also harbored higher relative abundances of these functional genes. The high relative abundances of these genes might provide the bacterial community after chlorine disinfection with high potential of biofilm formation and EPS secretion and then cause severe RO membrane biofouling. In the sample with 5 mg-Cl2/L chlorine disinfection, the correlation coefficients (r) between each two of the three kinds of functional genes were more than 0.9 and much stronger than that in the control group. These results indicated that the bacterial community selected by chlorine disinfection could build more stable biofilm to resist chlorine but also could cause more severe RO membrane biofouling.

Polyvinyl Alcohol/Graphene Oxide Interlayer for Enhancing Adhesive Performance of HA Coating on C/C Composites Prepared by Hydrothermal Electrodeposition/Hydrothermal Treatment.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings directly deposited by hydrothermal electrochemical technology (HET) onto carbon/carbon (C/C) composites exhibited a catastrophic failure occurring at the interface of the HA and C/C. To overcome this problem, a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/graphene oxide (GO) interlayer (P/G interlayer) was applied on the (NH4)2S2O8-pretreated C/C substrate (named P/G-C/C) by using a dipping method. Subsequently, a calcium phosphate coating was deposited on P/G-C/C, shortened as M-P/G-C/C, by HET, and then converted into HA coating (abbreviated as HA-P/G-C/C) through posthydrothermal treatment. For comparison, HA coating was prepared onto C/C without a P/G interlayer through the same process, which was denoted as HA-C/C. The composition, microstructure, and morphology of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectra, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The adhesive performance of the coatings on C/C was measured by a scratch test. Finally, an in vitro bioactivity of the coatings was evaluated in a simulated body fluid solution at 37 °C. Results showed no apparent differences in the morphology and phase of the posttreated coatings, both of which are composed of a dense structure containing needle-like HA crystals. However, the HA-P/G-C/C sample possessed a higher Ca/P ratio and denser interface, thereby exhibiting higher adhesive performance and better bioactivity. The adhesive strength of the HA-P/G coating was observed at a critical load of 41.04 N, which increased by 29.3% relative to the HA coating. Moreover, the failure site was on the HA-P/G coating rather than at the interface. The enhanced adhesive performance was ascribed to the PVA/GO-repairing pits on C/C and PVA and GO toughening effects on the HA coating. In vitro and in vivo tests revealed no statistical significance for the two HA-coated C/C samples, although the HA-P/G coating exhibited better bioactivity, inducing the growth of bonelike apatite than the HA coating.

Comparison of carbonized and graphitized carbon fiber electrodes under flow-through electrode system (FES) for high-efficiency bacterial inactivation.

The disinfection performance of a flow-through electrode system (FES) was systematically evaluated using different carbonized (C1, C2, and C3) and corresponding graphitized (G1, G2, and G3) carbon fiber felt (CFF) electrodes. The physicochemical and electrochemical properties were characterized to identify the differences among CFFs. Graphitized CFFs (gCFFs) can achieve complete inactivation of Escherichia coli (>6 log) at the voltage of 3 V and flux of 120-3600 L/(m2 h) for high conductivity and chemical stability, while carbonized CFFs (cCFFs) only achieved around 1 log removal with obvious carbon corrosion. For the gCFFs, G1 (>6 log removal) with higher conductivity, better graphite structure, and larger surface area (related to fiber diameter and density) presented better disinfection performance at the flow rate of 30 mL/min than G2 (∼3 log) and G3(∼1 log). Furthermore, no regrowth and reactivation of bacteria occurred during the storage under visible light illumination after FES treatment. Three parallel FESs with G1 were operated continuously for one week (24 h per day, 7 days) treating the solution with an E. coli concentration ranging from 106 to 107 CFU/mL at the applied voltage of 3 V and the flow rate of 20 mL/min. No live bacteria were detected in the effluent of any of these three FESs. In-situ sampling experiments demonstrated that the inactivation of bacteria on anode was the dominant mechanism for FES treatment, which can be attributed to the sequential adsorption, direct-oxidation and desorption process on anode, instead of indirect oxidation by generating chemical oxidants. In addition, hydroxide ion generated from cathode reaction enhanced anode adsorption and inactivation of bacteria by providing alkaline environment. Combining the analysis results of material properties and disinfection performance, the gCFF-based FES was suggested to be a low-cost, high-efficiency, and safe alternative for future water disinfection.