Effective degradation of COVID-19 related drugs by biochar-supported red mud catalyst activated persulfate process: Mechanism and pathway

Ziwei Guo; Yue Zhang; Shuchai Gan; Huan He; Nan Cai; Jingwei Xu; Pengran Guo; Bo Chen; Xuejun Pan

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130753

Effective degradation of COVID-19 related drugs by biochar-supported red mud catalyst activated persulfate process: Mechanism and pathway

J Clean Prod. 2022 Mar 15:340:130753. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130753. Epub 2022 Feb 1.

Authors

Ziwei Guo^{1

2}, Yue Zhang^{1

3}, Shuchai Gan¹, Huan He², Nan Cai¹, Jingwei Xu¹, Pengran Guo¹, Bo Chen², Xuejun Pan²

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Emergency Test for Dangerous Chemicals, Institute of Analysis, Guangdong Academy of Sciences (China National Analytical Center, Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 51000, China.
² Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510000, China.

Abstract

With the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the water pollution caused by extensive production and application of COVID-19 related drugs has aroused growing attention. Herein, a novel biochar-supported red mud catalyst (RM-BC) containing abundant free hydroxyl groups was synthesized. The RM-BC activated persulfate process was firstly put forward to degrade COVID-19 related drugs, including arbidol (ARB), chloroquine phosphate, hydroxychloroquine sulfate, and acyclovir. Highly effective removal of these pharmaceuticals was achieved and even 100% of ARB was removed within 12 min at optimum conditions. Mechanism study indicated that SO₄ ^•- and HO^• were the predominant radicals, and these radicals were responsible for the formation of DMPOX in electron spin resonance experiments. Fe species (Fe⁰ and Fe₃O₄) and oxygen-containing functional groups in RM-BC played crucial roles in the elimination of ARB. Effects of degradation conditions and several common water matrices were also investigated. Finally, the degradation products of ARB were identified by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) and possible degradation pathways were proposed. This study demonstrated that RM-BC/PS system would have great potential for the removal of COVID-19 related drug residues in water by the catalyst synthesized from the solid waste.

Keywords: Arbidol; Biochar; COVID-19 related drugs; Persulfate; Red mud.