Activation of the combined hydrogen peroxide and peroxymonosulphate by lepidocrocite for chloramphenicol removal: kinetics and mechanisms

The main compositions of pipe deposits from water distribution networks are potential iron resources, which can be used as catalysts to activate the combined hydrogen peroxide (HP) and peroxymonosulphate (PMS) system to produce reactive oxidative species (ROSs) to degrade pollutants. As a result, the degradation efficiency of chloramphenicol (CAP) in the HP/PMS dual-oxidant system could reach as high as 75.21% within 100 min with hydroxylamine (HA) assistance, and the dual-oxidant method had a wide pH applied range. To explore the mechanism of the dual-oxidant system in detail, several main affecting factors were investigated. In addition, the hydroxyl radical(•OH) was identified as the predominant radicals by Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and the Radical scavenger test (RST). According to the competition kinetics experiment, the reaction rate of CAP with •OH was 1.933(± 0.052) × 10¹⁰ M⁻¹s⁻¹ in the HP/PMS dual-oxidant system, which was higher than the HP single oxidant system (6.10(± 0.036) × 10⁹ M⁻¹s⁻¹). And the role of HA was explored, including reduction and competition. Six degradation products were detected by the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and their toxicity was analyzed by the ecological structure-activity relationship (ECOSAR) predictive model. These findings further provide a theoretical basis for the practical application of pipe deposits and advance the development of in-situ removal of pollutants in water distribution networks in the future promisingly.