Overview of electrocatalytic treatment of antibiotic pollutants in wastewater

ABSTRACT

Abuse of antibiotics in animal husbandry and medicine has led to severe environmental problems especially the risk of bacterial resistance. Different from common organic pollutants, antibiotics in wastewater could not be easily removed by biological treatment because of their poor biodegradability. Electrocatalysis including electrocatalytic oxidation and reduction has gained great attention for the removal of antibiotic contaminants in wastewater due to its advantages of high efficiency, simple operation, and thorough degradation. This review summarizes the common features and synthesis methods as well as research progress of electrode materials used in the electrocatalytic process for the treatment of antibiotics in the last five years. The removal mechanism and transformation pathways of antibiotics in the electrocatalytic oxidation and reduction processes are presented, especially to avoid the second pollution. Cost aspects in the electrocatalytic process are also discussed by considering practical applications and comparison with adsorption and photocatalysis process. Finally, several developing directions of electrocatalysis in the antibiotic wastewater treatment are proposed as a guidance for further research.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Electrocatalytic degradation
• antibiotics
• mechanism
• transformation pathways
• water treatment

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the support and funding from the Foundation of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0204600), Shanghai Rising-Star Program (No. 19QA1409400). This work is supported by Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (19DZ2271500).

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hongbo Gu

Dr. Hongbo Gu, received her Ph.D. degree at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in Jan. 2014, China. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at Tongji University (TJU) in China. Her research interests focus on the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensors, multifunctional polymer nanocomposites especially the magnetic and conductive materials for the environmental remediation and electronic devices.

Wenhao Xie

Mr. Wenhao Xie is currently a Ph.D. candidate under the guidance of Dr. Hongbo Gu in the School of Chemical Science and Engineering at Tongji University. He received his B.E. degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology (2019) from Tongji University (TJU). His current research interest focuses on the electrocatalysis degradation of organic pollutants for environmental remediation.

Zhanhu Guo

Dr. Zhanhu Guo, currently an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at University of Tennessee, obtained a Chemical Engineering Ph.D. degree from Louisiana State University (2005) and received three-year (2005–2008) postdoctoral training in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department in University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Guo, the Chair of the Composite Division of American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE, 2010–2011), directs the Integrated Composites Laboratory (ICL) with more than 20 members. His current research focuses on fundamental science behind multifunctional nanocomposites for energy harvesting, electronic devices, environmental remediation, anti-corrosion, fire-retardancy, and electromagnetic radiation shielding/absorption applications.