The electrochemical decomposition of persistent perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) with a Ti/SnO2-Sb-Bi electrode was demonstrated in this study. After 2 h electrolysis, over 99% of PFOA (25 mL of 50 mg·L(-1)) was degraded with a first-order kinetic constant of 1.93 h(-1). The intermediate products including short-chain perfluorocarboxyl anions (CF3COO-, C2F5COO-, C3F7COO-, C4F9COO-, C5F11COO-, and C6F13COO-) and F- were detected in the aqueous solution. The electrochemical oxidation mechanism was revealed, that PFOA decomposition first occurred through a direct one electron transfer from the carboxyl group in PFOA to the anode at the potential of 3.37 V (vs saturated calomel electrode, SCE). After that, the PFOA radical was decarboxylated to form perfluoroheptyl radical which allowed a defluorination reaction between perfluoroheptyl radical and hydroxyl radical/O2. Electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrum further confirmed that the oxidation of PFOA on the Ti/SnO2-Sb-Bi electrode proceeded from the carboxyl group in PFOA rather than C-C cleavage, and the decomposition processes followed the CF2 unzipping cycle. The electrochemical technique with the Ti/SnO2-Sb-Bi electrode provided a potential method for PFOA degradation in the aqueous solution.

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In order to develop a catalyst with high activity for catalytic wet oxidation (CWO) processing at lower temperatures (35 degrees C) and atmospheric pressure, a new CuO-MoO3-P2O5 catalystwas synthesized by a solid-state reaction method and was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformation infrared spectrometer (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), selected area electronic diffraction (SAED), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) for elemental mapping. Methylene blue (MB) was adopted to investigate the catalytic activity of CuO-MoO3-P2O5 in CWO processing. The results show that this new catalyst has a high catalytic activity to decolorize MB under mild condition. The color removal of MB (the initial concentration was 0.3 g L(-1) and initial pH was 5) can reach to 99.26% within 10 min at 35 degrees C and atmospheric pressure. Catalyst lifespan and selectivity were also tested, and the results show that after the catalyst was used three times, catalyst activity still remains. Selectivity testing shows that CuO-MoO3-P2O5 has high catalytic activity on degradation of MB, whereas this catalyst has less impact on methyl orange (the color removal was 99.65% for MB and 55% for methyl orange under the same conditions). According to the experimental results, a possible mechanism of catalytic degradation of MB was proposed.

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