Activation of Persulfate and Its Environmental Application

Persulfate is one of the strongest oxidants, and of fers some advantages over other oxidants because it is a solid at ambient temperatu re with the ease of storage and transport, high stability, high aqueous solubility and relativ ely low cost. These features let it to be a promising choice for wastewater treatment and in si tu chemical oxidation of organic pollutants in environmental remediation. Reactions of persulfa te with organic pollutants, however, are generally slow at ambient temperature, and activati on of persulfate is necessary to accelerate the process. Upon activation, persulfate can produc e the highly oxidative species, sulfate free radicals, which can react with a variety of organic pollutants. Persulfate can be activated to generate sulfate free radicals by thermal, chemical and photochemical techniques. Many studies have been conducted to investigate efficien cies of activated persulfate for the chemical degradation of environmental pollutants. This paper gives a review on the activation of persulfate and its environmental application, inclu ding the following activation methods: heat, UV light, transitional metal, activated carbon, mic rowave and integrated techniques.