Treatment of aqueous bromate by superparamagnetic BiOC1-mediated advanced reduction process

Abstract

Bromate (BrO-3) contamination in drinking water is a growing concern. Advanced reduction processes (ARPs) are reportedly promising in relieving this concern. In this work, UV/superparamagnetic BiOCl (BiOCl loaded onto superparamagnetic hydroxyapatite) assisted with small molecule carboxylic acid (formate, citrate, and acetate), a carboxyl anion radical (CO.2-)-based ARP, was proposed to eliminate aqueous BrO-3. Formate and citrate were found to be ideal CO.2- precursor, and the latter was found to be safe for practical use. BrO-3 (10 µg L-1, WHO guideline for drinking water) can be completely degraded within 3 min under oxygen-free conditions. In this process, BrO-3 degradation was realized by the reduction of CO.2- (major role) and formyloxyl radical (minor role) in bulk solution. The formation mechanism of radicals and the transformation pathway of BrO-3 were proposed based on data on electron paramagnetic resonance monitoring, competitive kinetics, and degradation product analysis. The process provided a sustainable decontamination performance (<5% deterioration for 10 cycles) and appeared to be more resistant to common electron acceptors (O2, NO-3, and Fe3+) than hydrated electron based-ARPs. Phosphate based-super paramagnetic hydroxyapatite, used to support BiOCl in this work, was believed to be applicable for resolving the recycling problem of other metal-containing catalyst.