Abstract
Water disinfection is a critical step in water and wastewater treatment. The most widely used chlorination suffers from the formation of carcinogenic disinfection by-products (DBPs) while alternative methods (e.g., UV, O3, and membrane filtration) are limited by microbial regrowth, no residual disinfectant, and high operation cost. Here, a nanowire-enabled disinfection method, locally enhanced electric field treatment (LEEFT), is introduced with advantages of no chemical addition, no DBP formation, low energy consumption, and efficient microbial inactivation. Attributed to the lightning rod effect, the electric field near the tip area of the nanowires on the electrode is significantly enhanced to inactivate microbes, even though a small external voltage (usually < 5 V) is applied. In this review, after emphasizing the significance of water disinfection, the theory of the LEEFT is explained. Subsequently, the recent development of the LEEFT technology on electrode materials and device configurations are summarized. The disinfection performance is analyzed, with respect to the operating parameters, universality against different microorganisms, electrode durability, and energy consumption. The studies on the inactivation mechanisms during the LEEFT are also reviewed. Lastly, the challenges and future research of LEEFT disinfection are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the financial support from the National Science Foundation via Grant CBET 1845354. J. Z. acknowledges the support from the NWRI/BioLargo, Inc. Fellowship. T.W. is grateful for the financial support provided by the China Scholarship Council.
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Jianfeng Zhou is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. Before that, he received his B.S. and M. S. degrees from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2015 and University of Washington in 2017, respectively. His research interests include environmental nanotechnology and its applications in water disinfection.
Ting Wang received her master’s degree in environmental science from Peking University in 2017. Following this, she started her Ph.D. studentship, supervised by Dr. Xing Xie at Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests mainly focus on the mechanisms of using locally enhanced electric field treatment (LEEFT) for bacteria disinfection.
Cecilia Yu received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in 2017 before applying for a Ph.D. in environmental engineering. She is currently studying under Dr. Xing Xie at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include the development of novel nanomaterials for low voltage electroporation-based disinfection and the practical applications of LEEFT in drinking water treatment.
Dr. Xing Xie received his B.S. (2006) and M. S. (2008) degrees in Environmental Science & Engineering from Tsinghua. He received his Ph.D. degree (2014) in Civil & Environmental Engineering and his second M.S. degree (2012) in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in 2017, he was a postdoc at Caltech. He has been applying environmental biotechnology and materials science to address challenges at the nexus of water and energy. Dr. Xie is a recipient of the US NSF CAREER award in 2019.
Highlights
• Nanowire-assisted LEEFT is applied for water disinfection with low voltages.
• LEEFT inactivates bacteria by disrupting cell membrane through electroporation.
• Multiple electrodes and device configurations have been developed for LEEFT.
• The LEEFT is low-cost, highly efficient, and produces no DBPs.
• The LEEFT can potentially be applicable for water disinfection at all scales.
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Zhou, J., Wang, T., Yu, C. et al. Locally enhanced electric field treatment (LEEFT) for water disinfection. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 14, 78 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1253-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1253-x