Rhodamine B dye degradation using used face masks-derived carbon coupled with peroxymonosulfate

Subramaninan Ramanathan; Jitti Kasemchainan; Ho-Chiao Chuang; Abílio J F N Sobral; Sirilux Poompradub

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121386

Rhodamine B dye degradation using used face masks-derived carbon coupled with peroxymonosulfate

Environ Pollut. 2023 May 1:324:121386. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121386. Epub 2023 Mar 1.

Authors

Subramaninan Ramanathan¹, Jitti Kasemchainan¹, Ho-Chiao Chuang², Abílio J F N Sobral³, Sirilux Poompradub⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10608, Taiwan.
³ Department of Chemistry, University of Coimbra, 3004-535, Portugal.
⁴ Department of Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand; Center of Excellence in Green Materials for Industrial Application, Faculty of Science, Chulanongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. Electronic address: sirilux.p@chula.ac.th.

PMID: 36868547
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121386

Abstract

Catalytic carbon materials from used face masks (UFM) activated by peroxymonosulfate (PMS) were developed for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) dye in aqueous solution. The UFM-derived carbon (UFMC) catalyst had a relatively large surface area as well as active functional groups and promoted the generation of singlet ¹O₂ and radicals from PMS, giving a high RhB degradation performance (98.1% after 3 h) in the presence of 3 mM PMS. The UFMC could degrade only 13.7% at a minimal RhB dose of 10^-5 M. The principal reactive oxygen species of sulphate (SO₄^•), hydroxyl radicals (^•OH), and singlet ¹O₂ were discovered using electron paramagnetic resonance and radical scavenger studies. Finally, a toxicological plant and bacterial study was performed to demonstrate the potential non-toxicity of the degraded RhB water sample.

Keywords: Carbon material; Degradation; Peroxymonosulfate; Plant and microbial; Rhodamine B; Used face masks.

MeSH terms

Carbon*
Masks*
Peroxides

Substances

peroxymonosulfate
Carbon
rhodamine B
Peroxides