Heterogeneous catalytic activation of peroxydisulfate toward degradation of pharmaceuticals diclofenac and ibuprofen using scrap printed circuit board

Pharmaceutical residues have been identified as a priority contaminant due to their toxicity to organisms and the ecosystem as representative refractory organic compounds in water. Therefore, using efficient treatment methods to remove them from wastewater has become a crucial topic of research. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based on the sulfate radical have gained increased attention in recent years due to their superior performance and adaptability in the decomposition of refractory organic contaminants. In this work, scrap printed circuit boards (PCBs) were used to prepare a low-cost and efficient heterogeneous peroxydisulfate (PDS) catalytic activator via thermal treatment with an air combustion non-carbonized catalyst (NCC) and pyrolysis with a nitrogen carbonized catalyst (CC) for the removal of diclofenac (DCF) and ibuprofen (IBF) from water at circumneutral pH. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by several analytical techniques. The effects of various experimental parameters on the removal efficiency were examined. Under optimum conditions, the degradation efficiency reached 76% and 71% with NCC and 63% and 57.5% with CC within 60 min for DCF and IBP, respectively. The mineralization efficiency as measured by TOC removal reached up to 65% after 60 min treatment. The degradation kinetics for both catalysts followed the pseudo-first-order model. Results from quenching tests showed that the reactive oxidizing species (ROS), including (1)O(2) > SO(4)˙(−) > ˙OH, were generated mainly in the NCC/PDS and CC/PDS systems. Overall, the prepared catalysts were found to be effective and reusable for PDS activation for the removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from water. This study provided a promising, robust and efficient heterogeneous catalytic PDS activation based on the strategy of “waste-treats-waste” for the removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from water.