Kinetics and mechanism of sulfate radical- and hydroxyl radical-induced degradation of highly chlorinated pesticide lindane in UV/peroxymonosulfate system

•Removal of lindane by UV-C/peroxymonosulfate based AOPs was investigated.•Lindane showed a comparable or slightly higher reactivity towards SO4- than HO.•Degradation efficiency was significantly affected in presence of NOM or alkalinity.•A reasonable mineralization of lindane was achieved by UV/PMS.•Transformation mechanism was proposed based on by-products identified via GC-MS.

Lindane is a highly persistent chlorinated pesticide and a potent endocrine disruptor. The strong electron withdrawing property of the chlorine atoms results in a relatively low reactivity of lindane with OH in conventional advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). In this study, the degradation of lindane by UV (254 nm)/peroxymonosulfate (UV/PMS), which can generate both OH and SO4-, was investigated. A second-order rate constant of 1.3 × 109 M−1 s−1 between lindane and SO4- was determined using competition kinetics, suggesting a strong role of SO4-. The degree of degradation changed with different initial solution pH, achieving 86, 92 and 55% removal of lindane at pH 4.0, 5.8 and 8.0, respectively, in 180 min, attributable to the varying concentrations of OH and SO4-. The addition of common water quality constituents, e.g., humic acid or inorganic anions, at pH 5.8 showed a varied inhibition effect with 61% degradation in the presence of 1.0 mg L−1 humic acid, and 45, 60, 88 and 91% degradation in the presence of 1 mM CO32−, HCO3−, Cl− and SO42−, respectively, in 180 min. With the kinetics being demonstrated to be feasible, the degradation mechanism of lindane by UV/PMS was also assessed. Based on the detected by-products through GC-MS analysis, plausible reaction pathways were proposed, suggesting dechlorination, chlorination, dehydrogenation and hydroxylation via OH and/or SO4- attack. Meanwhile, reasonable mineralization efficiency was observed, with a 56% total organic carbon removal in 360 min, at an initial PMS concentration of 500 μM. Results from both degradation kinetics and transformation mechanism indicate that UV/PMS is a potential method for the treatment of water contaminated with lindane.

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