One-pot Synthesized, Fe-Incorporated Self-Standing Carbons with a Hierarchical Porosity Remove Carbamazepine and Sulfamethoxazole through Heterogeneous Electro-Fenton

Abstract

Hierarchically porous carbons (HPC) are promising electrode materials for heterogeneous electro-Fenton (HEF), where in-situ produced hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) on the carbon surface reacts with the adjacently-immobilized catalyst to form unselective radicals. However, the synthesis of HPC usually comprises several steps, particularly catalyst-containing HPC. Moreover, with or without catalysts, most of previously reported HPCs were produced or ultimately used as powders, requiring additional efforts (e.g., adding polymeric binders) to make a functional electrode. Besides blocking some catalytically active carbon sites and the immobilized catalysts, polymeric binders pose risks of secondary pollution due to their undesired release since they are polyfluorinated compounds. This study introduces a one-pot method to synthesize Fe-incorporated self-standing HPCs with potential scalability. HEF experiments demonstrated the catalysts' activity for the formation of radicals, negligible catalyst leaching at both pH 3 and 7, and good reusability of as-synthesized HPC electrodes while elaborating on different diffusion-controlled degradation mechanisms.