Percarbonate promoted antibiotic decomposition in dielectric barrier discharge plasma

A coupling technique introducing sodium percarbonate (SPC) into a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma was investigated to enhance the degradation of antibiotic tetracycline (TC) in aqueous. The dominant effects of SPC addition amount and discharge voltage were evaluated firstly. The experiments indicated that the moderate SPC dosages in the DBD presented an obvious synergistic effect, improving the TC decomposition efficiency and kinetics. Elevating the voltage was conducive for the promotion of antibiotic abatement. After 5 min treatment, the removal reached 94.3% at the SPC of 52.0 μmol/L and voltage of 4.8 kV for 20 mg/L TC. Especially the defined synergy factors were greater than one since the SPC being added, and the energy yield was increased by 155%. Besides, the function mechanism was explained by the hydrogen peroxide and ozone quantitative determinations and radical scavenger test, and the results confirmed that the collaborative method could increase the generation of reactive species, and the produced hydroxyl and superoxide radicals both played the significant roles for the TC elimination. Furthermore, the decomposition and mineralization of the synergism were verified by UV-vis spectroscopy, TOC and COD analyses, and the degradation byproducts and transformation pathways were identified based on the analysis of HPLC-MS finally.