Direct/Alternating Current Electrochemical Method for Removing and Recovering Heavy Metal from Water Using Graphene Oxide Electrode

Treatment of heavy-metal pollution in both point-of-use water and industrial wastewater is critical in protecting human health and the environment. Current methods for heavy-metal treatment in both sources have limitations. For point-of-use water, current methods usually suffer from limited capacity and difficulties in spontaneously removing multiple heavy metals. For industrial wastewater, current methods greatly reduce the value of heavy metal by precipitating them as sludge which requires further treatment. Here we developed an electrochemical method that can treat both low-concentration and high-concentration heavy-metal pollution using either direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) electrodeposition with graphene-oxide-modified carbon felt electrode (CF-GO). The graphene oxide provides a high density of surface functional groups to assist the electrodeposition. The electrodeposition method showed 2 orders of magnitude higher capacity (>29 g heavy metal for 1 g of graphene oxide) compared with...