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Degradation of atrazine in river sediment by dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) combined with a persulfate (PS) oxidation system: response surface methodology, degradation mechanisms, and pathways

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Abstract

Single degradation systems based on dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) or persulfate (PS) oxidation cannot achieve the desired goals (high degradation efficiency, high mineralization rate, and low product toxicity) of degrading atrazine (ATZ) in river sediment. In this study, DBDP was combined with a PS oxidation system (DBDP/PS synergistic system) to degrade ATZ in river sediment. A Box–Behnken design (BBD) including five factors (discharge voltage, air flow, initial concentration, oxidizer dose, and activator dose) and three levels (− 1, 0, and 1) was established to test a mathematical model by response surface methodology (RSM). The results confirmed that the degradation efficiency of ATZ in river sediment was 96.5% in the DBDP/PS synergistic system after 10 min of degradation. The experimental total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency results indicated that 85.3% of ATZ is mineralized into CO2, H2O, and NH4+, which effectively reduces the possible biological toxicity of the intermediate products. Active species (sulfate (SO4•−), hydroxy (•OH), and superoxide (•O2−) radicals) were found to exert positive effects in the DBDP/PS synergistic system and illustrated the degradation mechanism of ATZ. The ATZ degradation pathway, composed of 7 main intermediates, was clarified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS). This study indicates that the DBDP/PS synergistic system is a highly efficient, environmentally friendly, novel method for the remediation of river sediment containing ATZ pollution.

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Data availability

The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 52070063), the Major Science and Technology Project of Anhui Province (grant number 202003a06020024), and the Key Project of Natural Science Research of Anhui University (grant number KJ2021A1011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology, Food, and Environment, Hefei University, No. 99 Jinxiu Road, Hefei, 230601, China

    Hongyu Lu, Wei Gao, Chengxun Deng, Xiaowei Liu, Zhimin Yu, Haitao Ding & Ling Zhang

  2. Heifei Engineering Research Center for Soil and Groundwater Remediation, Hefei, 230088, China

    Hongyu Lu, Chengxun Deng, Xiaowei Liu, Weiping Li, Zhimin Yu & Ling Zhang

  3. Anhui Guozhen Environmental Remediation Co., Ltd, Hefei, 230088, China

    Weiping Li

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  1. Hongyu Lu
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  2. Wei Gao
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  3. Chengxun Deng
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  4. Xiaowei Liu
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Contributions

Hongyu Lu: methodology, investigation, visualization, and writing–original draft. Wei Gao: methodology and investigation. Chengxun Deng: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, visualization, supervision, resources, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition. Xiaowei Liu: conceptualization and funding acquisition. Weiping Li, Zhimin Yu, Haitao Ding, and Zhang ling: methodology, investigation, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Chengxun Deng.

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Lu, H., Gao, W., Deng, C. et al. Degradation of atrazine in river sediment by dielectric barrier discharge plasma (DBDP) combined with a persulfate (PS) oxidation system: response surface methodology, degradation mechanisms, and pathways. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 51303–51313 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24927-0

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