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Direct degradation of methylene blue by unactivated peroxymonosulfate: reaction parameters, kinetics, and mechanism

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Abstract

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are efficient methods for water purification. However, there are few studies on using peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to remove pollutants directly. In this study, about 76% of methylene blue (MB) was removed by PMS directly within 180 min through a non-radical pathway, verified by scavenging tests, electron paramagnetic resonance and kinetic calculations. Additionally, the effects of PMS dosage, MB concentration, temperature, initial pH and competitive anions were determined. High PMS dosage, temperature and pH promoted MB degradation (from 76 to 98%) while MB concentration showed no effect on MB removal. Besides, MB degradation followed pseudo-first-order kinetic with rate constants of 0.0082 to 0.3912 min−1. The second-order rate constant for PMS reaction with MB was 0.08 M−1 s−1 at pH 3–6, but increased dramatically to 4.68 M−1 s−1 at pH 10.50. Chlorine could be catalysed by PMS at high concentration Cl− and degradation efficiency reached 98% within 90 min. High concentration of bicarbonate accelerated MB removal due to the high pH value while humic acid showed a marginal effect on MB degradation. Furthermore, TOC removal rate of MB in the presence of chloride reached 45%, whereas PMS alone caused almost no mineralisation. This study provides new insights into pollutant removal and an additional strategy for water purification.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Military Standard Research Project of China (20CH0612) and Dazhangxing Project of Naval Medical Center of PLA (21M0601).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Naval Medical Center of PLA, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Xu Zuo, Beier Jiang, Aijun Jiang, Shiyang Zou, Junrong Wu, Bingquan Ding, Xue hui Wang & Yang Liu

  2. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Jianxin Nie

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  1. Xu Zuo
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  2. Jianxin Nie
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Contributions

Xu Zuo: conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft. Jianxin Nie: writing—review and editing. Beier Jiang: editing. Aijun Jiang: methodology. Shiyang Zou: editing and supervision. Junrong Wu: supervision. Bingquan Ding: investigation. Xuehui Wang: validation. Yang Liu: investigation.

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Correspondence to Shiyang Zou.

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Zuo, X., Nie, J., Jiang, B. et al. Direct degradation of methylene blue by unactivated peroxymonosulfate: reaction parameters, kinetics, and mechanism. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 75597–75608 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21197-8

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