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Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received November 28, 2024
Revised April 20, 2025
Accepted June 10, 2025
Available online August 25, 2025

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Strong Enhancement on the Degradation of Organic Contaminants by Base‑Activated Peroxymonosulfate in Phosphate Buffer Solution

Mengqi Zhang Lingbin Wu¹ Hongfang Ma^† Shunjia Chen Zhijie Wu Linfeng He Jiale Fan Sheng Li Bo Sun² Qingfeng Cheng³ Haoqiang Tan⁴ Jing Zou^†

Institute of Municipal and Environmental Engineering, College of Civil Engineering ¹Lucheng District Urban Development Group Co., ²China National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Ecological Treatment Technology of Urban Water Pollution, School of Life and Environmental Science, Wenzhou University ³School of Urban Construction, Changzhou University ⁴School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Taizhou University,

mahongfa@hqu.edu.cn, zoujing@hqu.edu.cn

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, August 2025, 42(10), 2321-2331(11)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00499-w

Abstract

Alkali-activated peroxymonosulfate (PMS) exhibits low activation efficiency and high alkalinity consumption, and these

limitations significantly hinder its practical application. In this study, it was established that the incorporation of phosphate

buffered (PBS) could markedly increase the oxidation proficiency of Orange II (AO7) and Rhodamine B by PMS within

the range of pH 6–11. At pH 9.0, the degradation efficiencies of AO7 and RhB in the PBS/PMS process are 24.4-fold and

16.5-fold higher than those in the alkali-activated PMS process, respectively. These efficiencies surpass those of previously

reported alkali-activated PMS systems enhanced by pyrophosphate and NaHCO3.

The radical quenching studies demonstrated

that SO4

•− and •OH were the main responsible species in base-activated PMS in phosphate buffer solution rather than O2

•−

and 1O2 which have been previously reported. Furthermore, the predominant active species varied significantly under varying

pH conditions. The incorporation of phosphate could markedly increase the oxidation proficiency of AO7 and RhB by PMS

within the range of pH 6 to pH 11, with highest oxidation constant achieved at pH 9. The AO7 degradation rates increased

with increasing phosphate concentrations, PMS doses, as well as higher temperature. The high removal efficiency of residue

phosphate by CaCl2

demonstrated that this method could be used as a pretreatment for wastewater treatment. The findings

suggest that experiments on PMS-based advanced oxidation processes conducted in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) should

account for the catalytic role of PBS in PMS activation.

Keywords

Base activation · Hydroxyl radical · Peroxymonosulfate · Phosphate buffer solution · Sulfate radical