Polyacrylonitrile fiber supported nano zero-valent iron activated persulfate to degrade organophosphorus and simultaneously adsorb the produced phosphate

Degradation of organic phosphorus in water has received widespread attention. However, the synchronous recovery of generated phosphate remains a challenge. Herein, a novel nano zero-valent iron (nZVI) supported polyacrylonitrile fiber (PAN_AF-Fe⁰) was constructed to activate persulfate (PDS) for simultaneously degradation of organic P and removal of the generated phosphate. The results revealed that nZVI loading significantly increased the activation ability of PDS to degrade phenyl phosphonic acid (PPOA) with degradation rate over 99 % in 2 h, the SO₄^−• and •OH generated in the PAN_AF-Fe⁰/PDS system had major contributions. Furthermore, PAN_AF-Fe⁰ showed a high capacity of 5.12 mg P g⁻¹ for the removal of generated phosphate mainly via the formation of Fe-P complexes on the fiber surface. Besides, the PAN_AF-Fe⁰ possesses advantages of wide pH application range, remarkable anti-interference ability and excellent reusability, which provides an innovative technology of universal significance for the recovery of aquatic organic P.