Thermal- and MnO2-Activated Peroxydisulfate for Diuron Removal from Water

In this work, a peroxydisulfate (PDS)-based advanced oxidation process was used for removing diuron from water. The effect of heat and MnO2 as PDS activators was explored. It was found that diuron degradation obeyed zero-order kinetics in the presence of heat-activated PDS. The relative contribution of MnO2 to the diuron degradation decreased with the increasing temperature. At the highest temperature investigated, T = 55 °C, complete diuron removal was achieved in less than 75 min. A kinetic model for describing the rate of diuron degradation was proposed and successfully applied to the experimental data.