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Efficient Activation of Persulfate by TiO2/g-C3N4 Composite for Degradation of Acetaminophen Under Visible Light

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Abstract

The massive use of acetaminophen (APAP) poses a potential crisis for humans and the environment. In this paper, the degradation of APAP in aqueous solution was carried out using photocatalytic synergistic persulfate oxidation. To enhance the photocatalytic activity of g-C3N4 and thus activate the persulfate (K2S2O8, PS) more effectively, the heterojunction photocatalyst TiO2/g-C3N4 (TCN) was prepared by a hydrothermal method. The TCN-PS catalytic system showed a high efficiency for APAP degradation. When the amount of TCN and PS added was 0.6 g/L, the degradation rate of APAP at 10 mg/L was 78.3% after 60 min of illumination. Moreover, the TCN-PS catalytic system was effective in removing organic pollutants in acidic, neutral, and weakly alkaline environments. The radical quenching experiment results indicate that both sulfate radicals (SO4−•) and hydroxyl radicals (•OH) are involved in the degradation reaction. After five cycles, the TCN-PS catalytic system still has stable catalytic activity.

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The data is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by State Key Laboratory of NBC Protection for Civilian (SKLNBC2021-14).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of NBC Protection for Civilian, Beijing, 102205, China

    Huize Jiang, Jinge Yang, Xinxin Wang, Aihong Wang, Yuzhi li & Jinyu Wang

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  1. Huize Jiang
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  2. Jinge Yang
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  3. Xinxin Wang
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  4. Aihong Wang
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  5. Yuzhi li
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  6. Jinyu Wang
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Contributions

Huize Jiang and Jinge Yang contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Huize Jiang, Xinxin Wang, Aihong Wang, Yuzhi Li, and Jinyu Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Huize Jiang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Huize Jiang.

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Jiang, H., Yang, J., Wang, X. et al. Efficient Activation of Persulfate by TiO2/g-C3N4 Composite for Degradation of Acetaminophen Under Visible Light. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 619 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06638-5

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