FeOOH@WS2 as a high-efficiency catalyst for enhanced persulfate activation to remove sulfachloropyridazine

The residues of antibiotics in the environment posed serious threat to public health and aquatic ecosystem. This study synthesized a catalyst FeOOH@WS2 as activator for persulfate (PS)-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) system, with sulfachloropyridazine (SAP) as the target pollutant. In the FeOOH@WS2/PS system, influence factors such as catalyst dosage, PS concentration, solution pH, inorganic anions and natural organic matter, which could affect the catalytic efficiency for SAP degradation were conducted. Results demonstrated that increasing FeOOH@WS2 doses and PS concentrations sped up SAP’s rate of degradation. Besides, HO⋅, SO4•−, O2•− and 1O2 were existed by using the radicals quenching experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometry (EPR) analysis. It was found that 1O2 dominated the rapid SAP degradation. According to the intermediates found by analysis, the SAP degradation mechanism was postulated. Additionally, characterization and recycle results implied that the stability and durability of FeOOH@WS2 were also outstanding.