Green mechanochemical oxidative decomposition of powdery decabromodiphenyl ether with persulfate

A method was developed for efficiently degrading powdery decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE209) by using mechanochemical (MC) activation of persulfate (PS). Characteristic Raman spectra of BDE209 corresponding to CBr and CO bonds were decreased in intensity and finally disappeared as the MC reaction proceeded. The BDE209 removal was influenced by the molar ratio of PS to BDE209, the mass ratio of milling ball to reaction mixtures, the ball size, and the ball rotation speed. Under optimal conditions, the new method could achieve a complete degradation, debromination and mineralization of BDE209 within 3h of milling. However, the degradation removal (or debromination efficiency) was decreased to only 51.7% (15.6%) and 67.8% (31.5%) for the use of CaO and peroxymonosulfate, respectively. The analyses of products demonstrated that once the degradation was initiated, BDE209 molecules were deeply debrominated and fully mineralized in the MC-PS system. The strong oxidizing ability of this system was due to the reactive sulfate radicals generated from the MC-enhanced activation of PS, which was confirmed with electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Because no toxic low brominated polybrominated diphenyl ethers were accumulated as byproducts, the proposed MC oxidative degradation method will have promising applications in the treatment of solid BDE209 at high concentrations.