Webinar title: Size-Selective Trapping and Photocatalytic Degradation of PFOA in Fe-Modified Zeolite Frameworks
Speaker: Zongsu Wei
Webinar time: July 19, 2024 (Friday) 14:00
Venue: Room 231, New Environmental Building
Inviter: Ziyang Lou, Hui Wang
Abstract:
Removal and destruction of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are challenging due to its extreme persistence and dilute concentrations. This study investigated dual-function adsorptive-photocatalytic zeolite materials to selectively adsorb and degrade PFOA via tuning pore structures and doping transition metals. It is found that the pore opening is critical in the size-selective trapping of PFOA, while the iron doped zeolites present excellent adsorption of PFOA (>80 mg g−1) combining hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. The formation of PFOA-iron complexes has reduced bond dissociation energy of C−F, calculated from density functional theory, for favorable stepwise defluorination (over 60% defluorination in 4 hours) by superoxide radicals and ligand-to-metal charge transfer. This mechanistic investigation extends the potential of the concentrate-and-degrade concept to remove PFOA selectively and effectively from contaminated water.
About the speaker:
Dr. Zongsu Wei is a tenured Associate Professor at the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the group leader for Water Engineering Innovation Lab and secured 36.5 million Danish kroner (~5.3 million USD) funding from Danish and EU agencies. Professor Wei is currently serving as the Associate Editor for Water Research (Elsevier Publishing), Editor for Chemical Engineering Journal (Elsevier Publishing), and Editor for Water Science and Technology (International Water Association Publishing). He published 100 peer-reviewed papers, among which 22 papers are recognized as the ESI 1% Highly Cited Paper and ESI 0.1% Hot Paper. In 2022 and 2023, Prof. Wei was recognized the TOP 2% Scientists in Environmental Science and received the prestigious Sapere Aude Research Leader Award from the Independent Research Foundation Denmark in 2021.