Enhanced utilization efficiency of peroxymonosulfate via water vortex-driven piezo-activation for removing organic contaminants from water

The efficient activation and utilization of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) in PMS-based advanced oxidation processes is a high-priority target for the removal of organic contaminants. This work introduces a water vortex-driven piezoelectric effect from few-odd-layered MoS2 into the PMS activation to remove benzotriazole (BTR) and other organic contaminants from the water. Approximately 91.1% of BTR can be removed by the MoS2 piezo-activated PMS process with a reaction rate constant of 0.428 min(-1), which is 2.09 times faster than the sum of the individual MoS2, water vortex, and piezocatalysis rates. Meanwhile, the PMS utilization efficiency reached 0.0147 in the water vortex-driven piezo-activation system, which is 3.97 times that of the sum from the vortex/PMS and MoS2/PMS systems. These results demonstrate that the presence of MoS2 under a water vortex can trigger a piezoelectric potential and generate abundant free electrons to activate PMS to generate various active species for degradation of organic contaminants. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences

Automated summary

This study utilizes the water vortex-driven piezoelectric effect to activate PMS for efficient removal of organic contaminants. The results demonstrate that the presence of MoS2 under a water vortex can trigger a piezoelectric potential and generate abundant free electrons to activate PMS and generate various active species for degradation of organic contaminants.