Enhanced surface active state by multicomponent coordination on dual-electric centers for multiobjective drinking water purification.

Authors

Yumeng Wang, Wu Cai, Han Zhang, Yanyun Chen, Peng Zhang, Jingyu Gao, Chihao Yang-Zhou, Weijia Zhong, Fengchang Wu, Chun Hu

Published in

Water research. Volume 306. Pages 126575. Jul 25, 2026. Epub Jul 25, 2026.

Abstract

The effective removal of micropollutants and precursors of disinfection by-products (PDBPs) in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from drinking water sources remains a challenge for current drinking water treatment technologies. Herein, a Fe(II)/Fe(III) coordinated graphene-like (GL) encapsulating Fe⁰ (Fe(II)/Fe(III)-GL@Fe⁰) biofilter was established for treating sand-filtered water from the Pearl River water source in China. The biofilter achieved remarkable removal efficiencies of 68.6 %, 87.7 %, 100 %, and 100 % for the key controlled perfluoro and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and perfluoro-3,6,9-trioxadecanoic acid (PFO3DA) in water sources, respectively, as well as 100 % removal efficiency for nearly all antibiotics, accompanied by a significant reduction in antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), which was superior to the traditional biological activated carbon (BAC) process that causes the accumulation of pollutants. Disinfection byproducts formation potential (DBPFP) was significantly suppressed and opportunistic pathogens (OPs) were effectively inactivated during the subsequent chlorine disinfection process. The unexpected results stem from the synergistic removal of PDBPs and micropollutants on the high active surface of multicomponent coordinated-Fe(II)/Fe(III)-GL@Fe⁰ mediated by extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Moreover, an interfacial charge transfer channel (DOC → GL → Fe(III)N_x → EPS → microorganisms) was identified, enabling more electroactive bacteria (EABs) enriching on Fe(II)/Fe(III)-GL@Fe⁰ and inducing a change in microbial metabolic pathways. Our findings highlight the importance of the synergy between microorganisms and catalyst surface electric field for the simultaneous multiobjective control in drinking water treatment, providing new avenues for developing highly efficient and sustainable drinking water treatment technologies.

PMID:
42537276
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Aug 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.