Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for living organisms and cannot be replaced or substituted. In this paper, we present a simple yet efficient membrane free electrochemical system for P removal and recovery as calcium phosphate (CaP). This method relies on in situ formation of hydroxide ions by electro mediated water reduction at a titanium cathode surface. The in situ raised pH at the cathode provides a local environment where CaP will become highly supersaturated. Therefore, homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of CaP occurs near and at the cathode surface. Because of the local high pH, the P removal behavior is not sensitive to bulk solution pH and therefore, efficient P removal was observed in three studied bulk solutions with pH of 4.0 (56.1%), 8.2 (57.4%), and 10.0 (48.4%) after 24 h of reaction time. While P removal efficiencies are not generally affected by bulk solution pH, the chemical-physical properties of CaP solids collected on the cathode are still related to bulk solution pH, as confirmed by structure characterizations. High initial solution pH promotes the formation of more crystalline products with relatively high Ca/P molar ratio. The Ca/P molar ratio increases from 1.30 (pH 4.0) to 1.38 (pH 8.2) and further increases to 1.55 (pH 10.0). The formation of CaP precipitates was a typical crystallization process, with an amorphous phase formed at the initial stage which then transforms to the most stable crystal phase, hydroxyapatite, which is inferred from the increased Ca/P molar ratio from 1.38 (day 1) to the theoretical 1.76 (day 11) and by the formation of needle-like crystals. Finally, we demonstrated the efficiency of this system for real wastewater. This, together with the fact that the electrochemical method can work at low bulk pH, without dosing chemicals and a need for a separation process, highlights the potential application of the electrochemical method for P removal and recovery.

Magnetic CuO-Fe3O4 composite was fabricated by a simple hydrothermal method and characterized as a heterogeneous catalyst for phenol degradation. The effects of pH and bicarbonate ions on catalytic activity were extensively evaluated in view of the practical applications. The results indicated that an increase of solution pH and the presence of bicarbonate ions were beneficial for the removal of phenol in the CuO-Fe3O4 coupled with persulfate (PS) process. Almost 100% mineralization of 0.1 mM phenol can be achieved in 120 min by using 0.3 g/L CuO-Fe3O4 and 5.0 mM PS at pH 11.0 or in the presence of 3.0 mM bicarbonate. The positive effect of bicarbonate ion is probably due to the suppression of copper leaching as well as the formation of Cu(III). The reuse of catalyst at pH0 11.0 and 5.6 showed that the catalyst remains a high level of stability at alkaline condition (e.g., pH0 11.0). On the basis of the characterization of catalyst, the results of metal leaching and EPR studies, it is suggested that phenol is mainly destroyed by the surface-adsorbed radicals and Cu(III) resulting from the reaction between PS and Cu(II) on the catalyst. Taking into account the widespread presence of bicarbonate ions in waste streams, the CuO-Fe3O4/PS system may provide some new insights for contaminant removal from wastewater.

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This study demonstrates the first exploitation of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) as the matrix for constructing integrated dehydrogenase-based electrochemical biosensors for in vivo measurement of neurochemicals, such as glucose. In this study, we find that ZIFs are able to serve as a matrix for coimmobilizing electrocatalysts (i.e., methylene green, MG) and dehydrogenases (i.e., glucose dehydrogenase, GDH) onto the electrode surface and an integrated electrochemical biosensor is readily formed. We synthesize a series of ZIFs, including ZIF-7, ZIF-8, ZIF-67, ZIF-68, and ZIF-70 with different pore sizes, surface areas, and functional groups. The adsorption capabilities toward MG and GDH of these ZIFs are systematically studied with UV-vis spectroscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and Fourier transfer-infrared spectroscopy. Among all the ZIFs demonstrated here, ZIF-70 shows excellent adsorption capacities toward both MG and GDH and is thus employed as the matrix for our glucose biosensor. To construct the biosensor, we first drop-coat a MG/ZIF-70 composite onto a glassy carbon electrode and then coat GDH onto the MG/ZIF-70 composite. In a continuous-flow system, the as-prepared ZIF-based biosensor is very sensitive to glucose with a linear range of 0.1-2 mM. Moreover, the ZIF-based biosensor is more highly selective on glucose than on other endogenous electroactive species in the cerebral system. In the end, we demonstrate that our biosensor is capable of monitoring dialysate glucose collected from the brain of guinea pigs selectively and in a near real-time pattern.