Carbonaceous Catalyst Activated Persulfate for Degradation of Antibiotic Pollutants in Water

In recent years, the frequent use of antibiotics has led to the continuous release of antibiotics into the water environment, which not only poses a potential threat to public health, but also contributes to the generation and spread of antibiotic resistance. In addition, due to the high environmental persistence and low biodegradability of antibiotics, it is difficult to be effectively degraded by traditional water treatment processes. Therefore, it is urgent to develop clean and efficient treatment technologies. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which can effectively remove refractory organic pollutants from water, has become a promising water treatment technology. In this regard, persulfate (PS)-based AOPs (PS-AOPs) has attracted extensive attention of researchers. In this system, PS can be activated by energy and catalysts to produce highly oxidizing active species, and achieve efficient degradation of antibiotics. Due to its rich surface functional groups, high specific surface area and high adsorption properties, researches on the activation of PS by carbonaceous materials have been reported continuously. In this paper, the research progress of carbon nanotubes, graphene, biological carbon, active carbon and hetero-atom doped carbon materials as catalysts to activate PS and degrade antibiotics is reviewed. In addition, the structure and properties of different carbon materials and the activation mechanism of free radical and non-free radical mediated by carbon materials were introduced, and the effects of PS dosage, catalyst dosage, temperature and pH on the degradation of antibiotics were discussed. Finally, this paper points out the important development direction in the future, that is, the development of environmental protection, high efficiency, low cost carbon materials and further research on the actual wastewater treatment performance.