Paracetamol Degradation and Disinfection Via Electrocatalytic Oxidation by Using N-doped Graphene as Anode

Simultaneous pollution degradation and disinfection were seldom discussed in the field of electrocatalytic oxidation. In this work, N-doped graphene (N-GN) was selected as anode to ensure the high performance of paracetamol (APAP) degradation. With N doping, the activity of N-GN is evidently improved because of the better surface area, active defects, and conductivity compared with graphene. The generation of active chlorine and O2.− on the N-GN surface played an important role in APAP degradation. Compared with other operation parameters (such as pH and current density), environmental microorganisms exhibited more negative interference for APAP degradation. However, evident disinfection effects can be observed because of the release of fulvic and humic acids from microorganisms. In particular, active chlorine is evidently more effective than O2.− for disinfection. The simultaneous APAP degradation and disinfection observed in this research provided the possible technology of electrocatalytic oxidation via N-GN for practical application.Graphical Abstract