Promoted degradation of sulfadiazine in Fe3+/periodate system with the assistant of visible light coupled with 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid

LIANG Hui; YAN Cai-xia; ZHANG Yue; CHEN Ya-bing; DING Ming-jun; WANG Peng; NIE Ming-hua

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China Environmental Science ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5) : 2827-2838.

Promoted degradation of sulfadiazine in Fe³⁺/periodate system with the assistant of visible light coupled with 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid

LIANG Hui, YAN Cai-xia, ZHANG Yue, CHEN Ya-bing, DING Ming-jun, WANG Peng, NIE Ming-hua

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Abstract

In response to the current limitations of the Fe²⁺/periodate (PI) system, which is difficult to sustain effective performance and is merely applicable under acidic conditions, a system of visible light (VL) and 3,4,5-Trihydroxybenzoic acid (TA) cooperating with Fe³⁺ for activating PI was constructed. The results indicate that the combination of VL and TA can accelerate the redox cycling between Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺, significantly enhancing the performance of activating PI. The VL/TA/Fe³⁺/PI system can achieve the complete degradation of sulfadiazine (SD) within 30min, with better efficacy under neutral and acidic conditions. Anions such as Cl^-, NO₃^-, and SO₄^2- have minimal effects on SD removal, whereas the existence of HCO₃^- significantly inhibits SD elimination. At the same time, humic acid (HA) exhibits a promoting effect. Quenching tests and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis confirmed that hydroxyl radicals (HO·) and singlet oxygen (¹O₂) were the primary reactive species responsible for SD removal. Based on mass spectrometry analysis, 6degradation intermediates were verified, and 3 possible degradation pathways for SD were proposed. Using radish as a model organism for phytotoxicity assessment, it was demonstrated that the toxicity of SD-contaminated water was significantly reduced after treatment. Simultaneously, the system exhibited excellent treatment efficiency in various real water matrices. Furthermore, this system exhibits favourable degradation performance for multiple typical emerging contaminants prevalently existing in natural water bodies, indicating broad application prospects.

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3,4,5-Trihydroxybenzoic acid / Fe³⁺ / periodate / sulfadiazine / visible light

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LIANG Hui, YAN Cai-xia, ZHANG Yue, CHEN Ya-bing, DING Ming-jun, WANG Peng, NIE Ming-hua. Promoted degradation of sulfadiazine in Fe³⁺/periodate system with the assistant of visible light coupled with 3,4,5-trihydroxybenzoic acid[J]. China Environmental Science. 2025, 45(5): 2827-2838

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