Preparation of CuO/Activated Carbon Fiber Filter for Adsorption/Catalytic Degradation of Residual Chlorine in Drinking Water

Residual chlorine has a bactericidal effect, but it may react with natural organic matter in water to produce harmful substances. In this work, we report an efficient residual chlorine removal filter with activated carbon fiber (ACF) as adsorption carrier and CuO as residual chlorine degradation catalyst. Experimental results show that CuO has high catalytic efficiency and no attenuation of catalytic performance in 2924 h. The CuO is loaded on the surface of ACF by dipping-calcinating method. When the loading rate is 1.5%, the CuO distribution is uniform without defects and agglomeration. Continuous-flow experiment result shows that 1.5%-CuO/ACF filter can treat water amount 2.2 times as long as that for single ACF filter (residual chlorine concentration < 0.1 mg/L). Weak acidity and rising temperature can improve the reaction activity and increase the degradation amount of residual chlorine. The composite filter has excellent adsorption performance for Cu²⁺, showing the Cu²⁺ concentration in the produced water is less than 0.1 mg/L after filter treatment, which is in line with the National Drinking Water Standards, and in agreement with the Standard for Safety Assessment of Water Transmission and Distribution Equipment and Protective Materials for Drinking Water (GB/T17219-1998) of Immersion Experiment, indicating that 1.5%-CuO/ACF filter has good stability and safety.

Graphical Abstract