Heterogeneous Activation of Persulfate by Activated Carbon for Efficient Acetaminophen Degradation: Mechanism, Kinetics, Mineralization, and Density Functional Theory

Pharmaceutical compounds attracted environmentalists according to their unknown impact on the ecosystem and the increase in their demand. Acetaminophen (ACT) or paracetamol has been detected more than the natural concentration value. To avoid the negative impact of the ACT accumulation into the environment, many treatment techniques have been applied. Among them, advanced oxidation process (AOP) techniques have shown high efficiency to remove ACT. In this study, the ability of AC to catalyze PS by its functional group was evaluated, and the degradation efficiency of ACT was determined by using an activated carbon (AC)/persulfate (PS) system. In addition, the mechanism, kinetics, mineralization, and the density functional theory were also investigated. HPLC was used to measure ACT concentration, and the optimum results in this work were 100 % degradation within 3 minutes at catalysts concentrations AC 8.25 mM/PS 1.65 mM at pH 7 and the mineralization were 24 % after 90 min of reaction. And the degradation pathway of ACT was built based on density functional theory. This study will contribute to clarifying the role of carbon catalysts in the PS oxidation of pollutants. The degradation of ACT by using an AC/PS system is recommended because of the high degradations efficiency, non-toxic by-products, and environmentally friendly.