Efficient low-strength diclofenac elimination via adsorption-concentration and peroxydisulfate activation...

Sodium diclofenac (DCF) widely exists in actual water matrices, which can negatively impact ecosystems and aquatic environments even at low-strength. Herein, the adsorption-concentration-mineralization process was innovatively constructed for low-strength DCF elimination by freeze-dried biocarbon and oven-dried biocarbon coupled with cobalt oxide composites derived from the same waste biomass. Surprisingly, low-strength DCF of 0.5 mg/L was adsorbed rapidly and enriched to high-strength DCF under light with a concentration efficiency of 99.67 % by freeze-dried biocarbon. Subsequently, the concentrated DCF was economically mineralized by bifunctional oven-dried biocarbon coupled with cobalt oxide composites for peroxydisulfate (PDS) activation with full PDS activation and 76.11 % mineralization efficiency. Compared with direct low-strength DCF oxidation, adsorption-concentration-mineralization consumed less energy and none PDS residues. Mechanisms confirmed that DCF was adsorbed by freeze-dried biocarbon through hydrogen bonds and π-π stacking interactions, which were switched on due to electron-induced effect by light in DCF desorption-concentration. Furthermore, nonradical pathway (electron transfer) and radical pathway (SO₄^•-) were involved in efficient PDS activation by oven-dried biocarbon coupled with cobalt oxide composites for concentrated DCF mineralization, and the former was more prominent, in which graphitic carbon, cobalt redox cycle and carboxy groups were the main active sites. Overall, an energy-efficient strategy was proposed for elimination of low-strength DCF in real water matrices.