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Degradation and dechlorination of pentachlorophenol by microwave-activated persulfate

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Abstract

The degradation performance of pentachlorophenol (PCP) by the microwave-activated persulfate (MW/PS) process was investigated in this study. The results indicated that degradation efficiency of PCP in the MW/PS process followed pseudo-first-order kinetics, and compared with conventional heating, microwave heating has a special effect of increasing the reaction rate and reducing the process time. A higher persulfate concentration and reaction temperature accelerated the PCP degradation rate. Meanwhile, increasing the pH value and ionic strength of the phosphate buffer slowed down the degradation rate. The addition of ethanol and tert-butyl alcohol as hydroxyl radical and sulfate radical scavengers proved that the sulfate radicals were the dominant active species in the MW/PS process. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed to identify the intermediate products, and then a plausible degradation pathway involving dechlorination, hydrolysis, and mineralization was proposed. The acute toxicity of PCP, as tested with Photobacterium phosphoreum, Vibrio fischeri, and Vibrio qinghaiensis, was negated quickly during the MW/PS process, which was in agreement with the nearly complete mineralization of PCP. These results showed that the MW/PS process could achieve a high mineralization level in a short time, which provided an efficient way for PCP elimination from wastewater.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Project No. 2013AA06A305) and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (Project No. 201309044).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Chengdu Qi, Xitao Liu, Chunye Lin, Jun Ma, Wenxiao Shi & Qu Sun

  2. Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, Beijing, 100038, China

    Wei Zhao

  3. College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Hao Xiao

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  1. Chengdu Qi
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  2. Xitao Liu
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  3. Wei Zhao
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  4. Chunye Lin
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  5. Jun Ma
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  7. Qu Sun
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Correspondence to Xitao Liu.

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Responsible editor: Angeles Blanco

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Qi, C., Liu, X., Zhao, W. et al. Degradation and dechlorination of pentachlorophenol by microwave-activated persulfate. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 4670–4679 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3718-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3718-6

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