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ELECTROCHEMICAL OXIDATION OF HEXAFLUOROPROPYLENE OXIDE DIMER ACID (GENX): MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS AND EFFICIENT TREATMENT TRAIN WITH NANOFILTRATION
Pica, N.E., J. Funkhouser, Y. Yin, Z. Zhang, D.M. Ceres, T. Tong, and J. Blotevogel.
Environmental Science & Technology 53(21):12602-12609(2019)

Experimental and computational lines of evidence were provided in this study for GenX mineralization during electrochemical oxidation at a boron-doped diamond anode with a low potential for the generation of stable organofluorine intermediates. Density functional theory calculations considered the major operative mechanism, direct electron transfer, throughout the entire pathway. The initial oxidative attack did not break the ether bond but led to stepwise mineralization of the acidic side chain. Mechanistic investigations revealed that hydroxyl radicals were unreactive toward GenX, while electrochemically activated sulfate facilitated its oxidation. A NF90 membrane removed 99.5% of GenX from contaminated water. Electrochemical treatment of the nanofiltration rejectate reduced both energy and electrode costs by more than 1 order of magnitude compared to direct electrochemical treatment of the raw water. Overall, the nanofiltration-electrochemical oxidation treatment train was a sustainable destructive approach for the cost-effective elimination of GenX from contaminated water.



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