In Situ Electrochemical Synthesis of Squamous-like Cu[sub.2]S Induced by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria as a Fenton-like Catalyst in Wastewater Treatment: Catalytic Performance and Mechanism

• Published in: Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2024-04, Vol.14 (7)
• Main Authors: Zhao, Liuhui, Li, Zihao, Yang, Jing, Sun, Jiawen, Zhai, Xiaofan, Ma, Fubin, Duan, Jizhou, Ju, Peng, Hou, Baorong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Chemical synthesis; Copper compounds; Electrochemical analysis; Identification and classification; Methods; Properties; Purification; Sewage; Sulfides
• ISSN: 2079-4991; 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano14070621

In this paper, a novel method was proposed for the synthesis of Cu[sub.2] S on copper mesh via electrolysis in SRB culture medium. It was found that following electrolysis in SRB medium, squamous-like Cu[sub.2] S arrays were obtained on the copper mesh, and the Cu[sub.2] S loading contents varied with the electrolyzing parameters. The resultant Cu[sub.2] S on copper mesh in SRB (CSCM-SRB) with the highest catalytic MB degradation properties was produced by electrolysis at 3.75 mA/cm[sup.2] for 900 s. The optimized MB-degrading conditions were determined to be 1.2 cm[sup.2] /mL CSCM-SRB with 0.05 M H[sub.2] O[sub.2] at 35 °C when pH = 6, under which the degradation of MB reached over 99% after 120 min of reaction. Disinfecting properties was also proven by antibacterial tests, revealing that an almost 100% antibacterial rate against E. coli was obtained after 8 min. The organic compounds produced by SRB adsorbed on CSCM-SRB strongly promoted the degradation of MB. Furthermore, possible Fenton-like mechanisms of CSCM-SRB were proposed, illustrating that ·O[sub.2] [sup.−] , ·OH, and [sup.1] O[sub.2] acted as the main functional species during Fenton-like reactions, leading to effective MB degradation and high antibacterial properties. Finally, a simple device for wastewater treatment was designed, providing possible applications in real environments.