Abstract
In this work, molybdenite was used as a catalyst to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for atrazine (ATZ) degradation. First, the effects of molybdenite dosage (0.05-0.30 g/L), PMS dosage (0.02-0.15 mM) and the initial pH (3.0-11.0) in the aqueous solution on the ATZ degradation were investigated in the molybdenite/PMS system. The maximum degradation efficiency of ATZ (95.0%) after 10 min treatment was obtained at the molybdenite dosage of 0.2 g/L, PMS dosage of 0.08 mM and initial pH of 6.4. The control experiments suggested that molybdenite, which activate PMS had better performance than commercial molybdenum disulfide. It was found that the degradation efficiency of ATZ under the optimal parameters was only 41.2% in the commercial molybdenum disulfide/PMS system. The free radicals in the molybdenite/PMS system were studied by quenching experiment. The results showed that both SO4• and HO• were existed in the molybdenite/PMS system. In general, this study provided a natural catalyst for PMS activation and would urge us re-evaluate the capacity of natural materials as catalysts.
Highlights
Since the atrazine (ATZ), a kind of typical chlorinecontaining organic herbicide, has potential threat to environment and the human beings, its degradation in the aqueous solution has attracted extensive attention in recent years[1, 2]
The characteristics of molybdenite were analyzed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD)
The degradation efficiency of ATZ increased from 17.6% to 97.8% when molybdenite dosage increased from 0.05 to 0.30 g/L, indicating the active sites for PMS activation increased with the molybdenite dosage
Summary
Since the atrazine (ATZ), a kind of typical chlorinecontaining organic herbicide, has potential threat to environment and the human beings, its degradation in the aqueous solution has attracted extensive attention in recent years[1, 2]. Chen et al found that molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) could effectively activate PMS to degrade bisphenol A[19]. Low-valence molybdenum might have potential effect on PMS activation. Based on this conjecture, molybdenite, a cheap substitution of MoS2, was used as a PMS activator in this study. The main objectives of this work are to: (1) study the effects of the key parameters (molybdenite dosage, PMS dosage and the initial pH) on the degradation of ATZ, (2) investigate the main ROS in the molybdenite/PMS system and (3) confirm the superiority of molybdenite for PMS activation by control experiments
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