Abstract
The pollution of antibiotics, specifically ciprofloxacin (CIP), has emerged as a significant issue in the aquatic environment. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are capable of achieving stable and efficient removal of antibiotics from wastewater. In this work, biochar-supported sulfidized nanoscale zero-valent iron (S-nZVI/BC) was adopted to activate persulfate (PS) for the degradation of CIP. The impacts of different influencing factors such as S/Fe molar ratios, BC/S-nZVI mass ratios, PS concentration, S-nZVI/BC dosage, CIP concentration, initial pH, coexisting anions, and humic acid on CIP degradation efficiency were explored by batch experiments. The results demonstrated that the highest degradation ability of S-nZVI/BC was achieved when the S/Fe molar ratio was 0.07 and the BC/S-nZVI mass ratio was 1:1. Under the experimental conditions with 0.6 g/L S-nZVI/BC, 2 mmol/L PS, and 10 mg/L CIP, the degradation rate reached 97.45% after 90 min. The S-nZVI/BC + PS system showed significant degradation in the pH range from 3 to 9. The coexisting anions affected the CIP degradation efficiency in the following order: CO32− > NO3− > SO42− > Cl−. The radical quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) revealed that oxidative species, including SO4•−, HO•, •O2−, and 1O2, all contribute to the degradation of CIP, in which •O2− plays a particularly prominent role. Furthermore, the probable degradation pathway of CIP was explored according to the 12 degradation intermediates identified by LC-MS. This study provides a new idea for the activation method of PS and presents a new approach for the treatment of aqueous antibiotics with highly catalytic active nanomaterials.
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This work was financially supported by the programs for the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42107415) and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20210830).
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Wenjing Xue: investigation, data curation, validation, and funding acquisition; Xinyu Chen: investigation, methodology, resources, and writing of original draft; Hongdou Liu: conceptualization and data curation; Jun Li: conceptualization, data curation, and software; Siqi Wen: visualization and formal analysis; Jiaming Guo: supervision and formal analysis; Xiaoyu Shi: resources and formal analysis; Yang Gao and Rongzhong Wang: investigation and visualization; Yiqun Xu: writing which included review and editing.
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Xue, W., Chen, X., Liu, H. et al. Activation of persulfate by biochar-supported sulfidized nanoscale zero-valent iron for degradation of ciprofloxacin in aqueous solution: process optimization and degradation pathway. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 10950–10966 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-31931-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-31931-z