Treatment of Aqueous Bromate by Superparamagnetic BiOCl-Mediated Advanced Reduction Process

Bromate (BrO− 3 ) contamination in drinking water is a growing concern. Advanced reduction processes (ARPs) are reportedly promising in relieving this concern. In this work, UV/superparamagnetic BiOCl (BiOCl loaded onto superparamagnetic hydroxyapatite) assisted with small molecule carboxylic acid (formate, citrate, and acetate), a carboxyl anion radical (CO•− 2 )-based ARP, was proposed to eliminate aqueous BrO− 3 . Formate and citrate were found to be ideal CO •− 2 precursor, and the latter was found to be safe for practical use. BrO− 3 (10 μg·L−1, WHO guideline for drinking water) can be completely degraded within 3 min under oxygen-free conditions. In this process, BrO− 3 degradation was realized by the reduction of CO •− 2 (major role) and formyloxyl radical (minor role) in bulk solution. The formation mechanism of radicals and the transformation pathway of BrO− 3 were proposed based on data on electron paramagnetic resonance monitoring, competitive kinetics, and degradation product analysis. The process provided a sustainable decontamination performance (<5% deterioration for 10 cycles) and appeared to be more resistant to common electron acceptors (O2, NO− 3 , and Fe 3+) than hydrated electron based-ARPs. Phosphate based-superparamagnetic hydroxyapatite, used to support BiOCl in this work, was believed to be applicable for resolving the recycling problem of other metal-containing catalyst.