Mechanism analysis of efficient degradation of carbamazepine by chalcopyrite-activated persulfate.

In this study, natural chalcopyrite (NCP) was used to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) to degrade carbamazepine (CBZ) oxidatively. Before and after the NCP reaction, the physical and chemical properties were characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD, XPS, XRF, and VSM. The effects of the amount of NCP and PMS, the initial pH value, and the reaction temperature on the catalytic performance of NCP were systematically studied. The research results show that the degradation efficiency of the NCP/PMS system for CBZ can reach 82.34% under the optimal reaction conditions, and the degradation process follows a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The results of the radical quenching experiment and EPR analysis show that the active species in the system are OH·, SO·, and O, of which SO· is the main active species. In addition, this study shows that the NCP/PMS system can degrade CBZ with high efficiency of 90.73% only with the assistance of 0.15 g/L Fe. This study determined the optimal reaction conditions for natural chalcopyrite to activate PMS to degrade CBZ and clarified the activation mechanism, which broadened the application of natural ores in the field of water treatment.