Ni organic complexes are widely used in industrial production, posing severe threats to the natural environment and human health. In this work, we found that Ni (0) formed by the decomplexation and reduction of typical Ni organic complexes (Ni-EDTA) on the surface of carbon felt cathode. The formed Ni(0) as a catalytic site generates atomic hydrogen (H•) with strong reductive reactivity via electron transfer. H• not only accelerates the oxygen activation to form H 2 O 2 on carbon felt cathode, but also reacts with H 2 O 2 to generate strong oxidative hydroxyl radicals (HO•) and singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ). Under the attack of multiple active species, 95.5 % of Ni-EDTA is removed, and the removal efficiencies of total organic carbon (TOC) and dissolved Ni reach 43.8 % and 77.1 % after 120 min of electrolysis at −2.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The redox synergistic reaction, initiated by the formation of Ni(0) on the carbon felt cathode, demonstrates excellent stability in treating real Ni plating wastewater. This approach eliminates the need for additional chemical reagents and prevents the release of heavy metals. Our findings offer a novel strategy for leveraging the self-transformation of Ni organic complexes to generate various active species for electrochemical treatment of Ni plating wastewater.
Abstract Amorphous nickel catalysts derived from nickel halides (NiF 2 , NiCl 2 , NiBr 2 , NiI 2 ) were in situ synthesized in an aqueous solution of NaBH 4 /NH 3 BH 3 . The halide anions have effects on the formation of Ni(0) catalysts, which can further affect the catalytic activities and activation energies of the catalysts for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. The PVP stabilized catalysts have higher hydrogen evolution rates and durabilities than bare Ni catalysts for the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. The catalysts derived from NiBr 2 stabilized by PVP present the highest catalytic activity and the lowest activation energy, which has been measured to be 25.58 kJ/mol. This value is lower than most of reported Ni-based catalysts and even noble-metal containing catalysts. The results of mercury poisoning experiment reveal that Ni(0) catalysts derived from NiBr 2 are heterogeneous catalysts in the hydrolysis of ammonia borane. Graphical Abstract