Highly Efficient Degradation of Sulfisoxazole by Natural Chalcopyrite-Activated Peroxymonosulfate: Reactive Species and Effects of Water Matrices

In this study, chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), a natural mineral with a bimetallic structure, was used as the activator to generate radicals for removing organic pollutants from aqueous solutions via the activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS). Sulfisoxazole (SIX), a sulfonamide antibiotic, was selected as the model pollutant. The results showed that chalcopyrite was highly reactive toward the activation of PMS; under the conditions of 50 µM PMS and 1 g/L chalcopyrite, approximately 95.7% of the SIX was degraded after reaction for only 5 min. An increase in the loading of chalcopyrite (0.25–2 g/L) promoted the degradation of SIX, while elevated levels of PMS (0.05–0.5 mM) slightly retarded the degradation kinetics. Although the best performance was observed under acidic conditions (pHs 3 and 4), near complete degradation of SIX was also achieved at pH 5.5. Identification of reactive species revealed that both a hydroxyl radical and a sulfate radical were formed in chalcopyrite–PMS oxidation, and they were responsible for the degradation of SIX. Trace amounts of copper and iron were leached out from chalcopyrite during the activation, and both the heterogeneous and homogeneous activation of PMS contributed to the generation of oxidizing radicals. Common water constituents including Cl−, HCO3−, and natural organic matter at their environmentally relevant levels showed a limited effect on the degradation of SIX, which suggests that chalcopyrite–PMS oxidation has high reactivity and stability in the degradation of organic pollutants and shows great practical application potential.