Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Coupled With Microbubbles for the Degradation of Tetracycline in Wastewater

Abstract

ABSTRACT Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) can remove antibiotics from wastewater, but has challenges like high energy consumption and industrialization difficulties. This study coupled DBD with microbubbles (MBs) to investigate its degradation effect on tetracycline (TC). Experimental results showed that introducing MBs and optimizing via response surface methodology achieved optimal degradation and energy efficiency rates of 98.31% and 3.49 g·kW −1 ·h −1 , respectively. More reactive oxygen species were generated in the DBD‐MB system. Superoxide anion radicals (O 2 •− ), hydroxyl radicals (•OH), and singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) were key to enhancing TC degradation. A potential degradation pathway for TC was proposed. This work combined MBs and DBD to rapidly degrade TC, providing a novel strategy for antibiotic wastewater treatment and contributing to technological advancement.