Combination of sunlight with hydrogen peroxide generated at a modified reticulated vitreous carbon for drinking water disinfection

Abstract Long treatment times limit the application of solar disinfection (SODIS). The concentrations of electrolytes in drinking water are low, so it is difficult to generate a sufficient quantity of H2O2 for drinking water disinfection via electrochemical reduction. In this study, SODIS and electrochemical reduction were combined together. A reticulated vitreous carbon (RVC) cathode was anodised to improve its performance and characterized using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The contributions of the electrochemical process and SODIS to disinfection were studied. The influences of current, temperature and humic acid (HA) were also investigated. The results showed that the modification of RVC added oxygen-bearing functional groups and doubled the quantity of H2O2 generated at the cathode. When the hybrid process was employed to remove E. coli from water, The E. coli count was reduced from approximately 106 colony-forming units (CFUs) per mL to below the detection threshold (