Fig. 3: Selective adsorption of PFAS.
a, b Relationship between log Kow and Kd of 107 PFAS: PFA694E (a) vs. Zn-based EC (b). Inset in (a) is the enlarged relationship between log Kow and Kd of PFAS (log Kow < 6.0). Shaded areas in (b) are 95% confidence intervals for the quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model estimates. Experiment conditions for PFA694E adsorption: 100 mg PFA694E, 300 mL fluorochemical wastewater, 60 min of treatment time. Experiment conditions for Zn-based EC: 100 cm2 of Zn electrode, 300 mL fluorochemical wastewater, 3 mA cm−2 of applied current density, 20 min of treatment time. c The achieved maximum adsorption amount (qm, mmol g−1) of 8 PFAS (C4 ~ C10) in simulated solution by Zn-based EC vs. their log Kow values. Experiment conditions: 100 cm2 of zinc electrode, 300 mL simulated solution with 1.2 mM PFAS, 20 mM NaCl as supporting electrolyte, 1 mA cm−2 of applied current density, pH = 7. d Comparison of the qm and dynamic adsorption capacity (qdyn, mmol g−1 h−1) values for PFOA (n = 23), PFOS (n = 25) and GenX (n = 10) by Zn-based EC with various adsorbents in reported literature (listed in Supplementary Tables 4–6). The Centerline, upper limits and the lower limits of the box, upper whiskers and the lower whiskers, and the point in (c) represent the median, 25% of the maximum and minimum, the maximum and minimum, and the average of qm or qdyn in different technologies. All the error bars in this figure represent the standard deviation of the data from duplicate tests.
