Investigation of Fe@Fe2O3 /three dimensional graphene composite as cathode electrode for the electrochemical removal of organic compounds from contaminated water

One of the main current worldwide concerns is the growth of water pollution by organic compounds arising from many industrial, agricultural and urban human activities. A large variety of electrochemical advanced oxidation processes (EAOPs) have been recently developed to remove organic pollutants from wastewaters [1]. Nowadays, research on advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have become a hot topic. These technologies have been shown to be able to oxidize efficiently most organic pollutants until mineralization to inorganic carbon (CO2) [2]. Graphene is the most recent member of the family of multi-dimensional graft carbon material [3]. Materials based on graphene and graphene oxide have a two-dimensional structure. For this reason, despite having a high surface area, they still cannot have high efficiencies for different processes [4]. In the present study, a 3D graphene loaded with Fe@Fe2O3 (Fe@Fe2O3/3D-GO) core-nanowires was used as a cathode electrode in the electro-Fenton process. In the first step, 3D graphene was prepared by graphene oxide using a hydrothermal method with an improved Hummers method. Then it was transformed into a three-dimensional graphene composite Fe@Fe2O3, and properties of the composite were characterized by XRD FT-IR BET and SEM analysis. The amount of electrogenerated H2O2 on the surface of this electrode was investigated, too. The performance of the prepared cathode electrode was studied using LSV and CV analyzes. The effect of operational parameters such as applied current, initial pH and initial pollutant concentration were studied in an attempt to reach higher degradation efficiency.