Engineered hydrochar from waste reed straw for peroxymonosulfate activation to degrade quinclorac and improve solanaceae plants growth

Chunxia Ding; Can Ye; Wei Zhu; Guangyong Zeng; Xuemei Yao; Yu Ouyang; Jie Rong; Yaping Tao; Xiangying Liu; Yaocheng Deng

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119090

Engineered hydrochar from waste reed straw for peroxymonosulfate activation to degrade quinclorac and improve solanaceae plants growth

J Environ Manage. 2023 Dec 1:347:119090. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119090. Epub 2023 Oct 2.

Authors

Chunxia Ding¹, Can Ye¹, Wei Zhu², Guangyong Zeng¹, Xuemei Yao², Yu Ouyang¹, Jie Rong¹, Yaping Tao³, Xiangying Liu⁴, Yaocheng Deng⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China.
² Shaoyang Tobacco Company of Hunan Province, Shaoyang, 422001, China.
³ College of Physics and Electronic Information & Henan Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Transformation and Detection, Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang, 471934, China.
⁴ College of Plant Protection, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China. Electronic address: lxy525525@163.com.
⁵ College of Resource and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410082, China. Electronic address: dengyaocheng@hunau.edu.cn.

PMID: 37793289
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119090

Abstract

Hydrochar from agricultural wastes is regarded as a prospective and low-cost material to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for degrading pollutants. Herein, a novel in-situ N-doped hydrochar composite (RHCM4) was synthesized using montmorillonite and waste reed straw rich in nitrogen as pyrolysis catalyst and carbon source, respectively. The fabricated RHCM4 possessed excellent PMS activation performance for decomposing quinclorac (QC), a refractory herbicide, with a high removal efficiency of 100.0% and mineralization efficiency of 75.1%. The quenching experiments and electron spin resonance (ESR) detection disclosed free radicals (•OH, •SO₄^-, and •O₂^-) and non-radicals (¹O₂) took part in the QC degradation process. Additionally, the catalytic mechanisms were analyzed in depth with the aid of various characterizations. Moreover, the QC degradation intermediates and pathways were clarified by density functional theory calculations and HPLC-MS. Importantly, phytotoxicity experiments showed that RHCM4/PMS could efficaciously mitigate the injury of QC to Solanaceae crops (pepper, tomato, and tobacco). These findings give a new idea for enhancing the catalytic activity of hydrochar from agricultural wastes and broaden its application in the field of agricultural environment.

Keywords: In-situ N-Doped hydrochar; Montmorillonite; PMS activation; Phytotoxicity; QC degradation.

MeSH terms

Peroxides
Prospective Studies
Solanaceae*
Vegetables

Substances

peroxymonosulfate
quinclorac
Peroxides