A polymer-coated nanowire sponge–based contact electrocatalytic system for simultaneous disinfection and removal of multiple micropollutants | Nature Communications

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A polymer-coated nanowire sponge–based contact electrocatalytic system for simultaneous disinfection and removal of multiple micropollutants

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Materials for energy and catalysis<br>Pollution remediation

Abstract<br>The removal of diverse contaminants in wastewater remains a major challenge due to low treatment efficiencies, high catalyst costs, and risks of residual chemicals. In this work, we introduce a polymer-coated nanowire sponge (PNS) based contact electro-catalysis (CEC) system for achieving the disinfection of microorganisms and the degradation of multiple micropollutants. Under ultrasonic stimulation, PNS facilitates interfacial electron transfer and generates a high rate of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Its synergistic ROS generation and static charge electroporation achieve over 99% disinfection within 3 minutes while degrading dyes, waste tire leachate, and reducing heavy metal ions in wastewater under ambient conditions. The system also exhibits a high hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) production rate of 20.2 ± 0.1 μmol h⁻¹. Furthermore, PNS demonstrates excellent versatility, ease of recovery, and reusability, highlighting its strong potential for both point-of-use and large-scale wastewater treatment applications.

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Acknowledgements<br>The authors sincerely acknowledge Ms. Meng-Ting Wu for the mass spectroscopy technical research services from the Consortia of Key Technologies, National Taiwan University. We extend our gratitude to Mr. Mao-Jung Huang and Mr. Han-Bang Chen for their assistance with FE-TEM experiments and XPS measurements, respectively at the Instrumentation Center, National Taiwan University. We also thank Ms. Ya-Yun Yang for her help with cross-sectional SEM and EDS analyses at the Instrumentation Center, National Taiwan University. We are grateful to Professor Shu-Yuan Pan and Ms. Yu-Ning Chen from the Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering, College of Bioresources and Agriculture, National Taiwan University, for their valuable assistance in TOC and fluoride ion measurements. Special thanks are extended to Mr. Ze-Ying Chen from the Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, for his help with UPLC-MS/MS analysis. We also thank Ms. Hsiu-Ni Huang from the Instrument Center, National Taiwan Normal University, for her assistance with EPR measurements. Additionally, we acknowledge Ms. Tzuh-Suan Chen from the Particulate Technology Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, for conducting BET surface area and particle size measurements, and Ms. Hsiao-Ping Hsu from the same department for her support in SEM and XPS analysis of samples. Lastly, we would like to thank Mr. Chia-Bin Hung at Precious Instrumentation Center, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, for his help in XRD measurement.

Funding<br>Z.H.L. discloses support for the research of this work from the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan [grant numbers 113-2636-E-002-002, 113-2628-E-002-010-MY3, and 113-2923-E-002-014-MY2]. Z.T. discloses support for the research of this work from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) [award number 2024-67021-42876]. G.S.L. acknowledges support from the Renewable Bioproduct Institute graduate student fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Author information<br>Author notesThese authors contributed equally: Geng-Sheng Lin, Arshad Khan.

Authors and Affiliations<br>School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA<br>Geng-Sheng Lin, Ji Gao & Zhaohui Tong

Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan<br>Arshad Khan, Kuldeep Kaswan, Manish Kumar Sharma, Ravindra Joshi, Meenakshi Ray, Ping-Yu Yang & Zong-Hong Lin

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