Degradation of trimethoprim in aqueous by persulfate activated with nanosecond pulsed gas-liquid discharge plasma

The persulfate activation by nanosecond pulsed gas-liquid discharge (NPG-LD) is employed to degrade the trimethoprim (TMP) in water. The results show that persulfate addition enhances the degradation of TMP by NPG-LD through an obvious synergetic effect. With treatment time of 50 min, the high removal efficiency and energy yield reach 94.6% and 0.57 gkWh(-1) in air NPG-LD with the addition of persulfate, respectively, which is 13.5% and 0.09 gkWh(-1) higher than that in solo air NPG-LD, respectively. Correspondingly, the calculated synergetic factor achieves 1.62, indicating the synergetic effect is established. The activation mechanism of persulfate by NPG-LD is analyzed by the measurement of reactive species and the effects of radical scavenger addition on TMP removal. It is found that the synergetic effect between NPG-LD and persulfate is attributed to the increased production of center dot OH, H2O2, and . Besides, the TMP degradation by NPG-LD and persulfate synergetic system is influenced by discharge working gas, pulse voltage, addition dosage of persulfate, initial TMP concentration, and initial pH value. Subsequently, the degradation pathway of TMP is analyzed using LCMS/MS.

Automated summary

Activation of persulfate by nanosecond pulsed gas-liquid discharge (NPG-LD) leads to enhanced degradation of trimethoprim (TMP) in water, with a calculated synergetic factor of 1.62. The synergy is mainly attributed to the increased production of reactive species such as hydroxyl radicals. The degradation process is influenced by factors such as discharge working gas, pulse voltage, persulfate dosage, initial TMP concentration, and initial pH value.