Strongly coordinating mediator enables single-step resource recovery from heavy metal-organic complexes in wastewater

Heavy metals complexed with organic ligands are among the most critical carcinogens threatening global water safety. The challenge of efficiently and cost-effectively removing and recovering these metals has long eluded existing technologies. Here, we show a strategy of coordinating mediator-based electro-reduction (CMBER) for the single-step recovery of heavy metals from wastewater contaminated with heavy metal-organic complexes. In CMBER, amidoxime with superior coordinating abilities over traditional ligands is immobilized by an amidoximation reaction onto a flow-through electrode that concurrently functions as a filtration device. This unique process spontaneously captures heavy metal ions at the -N-OH and -NH