Efficient water disinfection with ball milled Mg-biochar: The key role of trace Cu

In this study, magnesium and coconut shell carbon (CSC) were prepared by a ball milled process and used for water disinfection with adsorbing tiny amounts of copper(II). Dissolved oxygen (DO) was reduced to hydrogen peroxide (H_(2)O_(2)) via a two-electron pathway by Mg corrosion. Cu(II) in the wastewater will be enriched on the CSC surface and efficiently catalyzes H2O2 for inactivating E. coli. The results show that E. coli with an initial concentration of approximately 106 CFU/mL was under the detection limit (<4 CFU/mL) within 15 min. All of the Cu(II) could be adsorbed by the composite and catalyzed H2O2 to different active species. The quenching experiments, electron spin resonance (ESR) capture measurements and the UV-vis spectroscopy detection confirmed the present of the hydroxyl radicals (·OH), superoxide radicals (·O_(2)^(-)) and Cu(III). Different with tradition Fenton like process, Cu(III), rather than radicals, played the major role during the Mg-CSC/Cu(II) process. In addition to the cellular membrane damage, most of the bacterial genomic DNA was also be degraded and the bacterial reactivation was avoided. The Mg-CSC/Cu(II) process also showed a satisfied disinfection performance in real wastewater treatment. Overall, this study provides a new strategy for water disinfection.