In recent years, the activation of persulfates (peroxydisulfate (PDS) and peroxymonosulfate (PMS)) via transition metal ions for contaminants degradation has received extensive attention in water treatment. There has been growing interest on the mechanism (radical versus non-radical pathway) of activation processes. Interestingly, in contrast to copper, iron or cobalt ions regarded as effective activators for persulfates, manganese ion (Mn(II)) is inefficient for persulfates activation. Inspired by the enhanced stability of manganese species by ligands, this study for the first time systematically investigated the Mn(II)/persulfates with different ligands as a novel oxidation technology. UV-vis spectrometry, chemical probing method and mass spectrometry were used to explore the reactive intermediate (free radical versus high-valent manganese species) therein. It was surprisingly found that the oxidation efficiency of Mn(II)/ligand/persulfates system was highly dependent on the nature of persulfates and ligands. Mn(II) chelated by amino ligands such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and nitrilotriacetate (NTA) could efficiently trigger the oxidation of contaminants (e.g., recalcitrant compounds nitrophenol, benzoic acid and atrazine) by PMS , suggesting a promising Mn(II)/ligand/PMS technology for environmental decontamination especially under manganese-rich conditions. High-valent Mn species (Mn(V)) but not free radicals was demonstrated to be the dominant reactive intermediate, where Mn(III) species played a vital role in Mn(V) generation. The formation of Mn(III) species was found to be affected by the reactivity of persulfates and the type of ligands, thus influencing its further oxidation to Mn(V) species. This study presents a new oxidation process based on the combination of PMS and Mn(II) complex and broadens the knowledge of persulfates activation as well as manganese chemistry for decontamination in water treatment.
In nature, active Mn 3+ –ligand complexes produced by laccase catalyzed oxidation can act as the low-molecular mass, diffusible redox mediators to oxidize the phenolic substrates overcoming the limitations of natural enzymes. Learning from the metal–ligand coordination of natural functional units, high-valence Mn metal–organic framework (Mn MOF) is constructed to simulate the catalysis in natural mediator system. Benefiting from the characteristics of nanoscale size, rich metal coordination unsaturated sites, and mixed valence state dominated by Mn(III), Nano Mn(III)-TP exhibits superior laccase-mimicking activity, whose V max (maximal reaction rate) is much higher than that of natural laccase. Referring to natural systems, relevant free radical experiments prove that the material induces the production of active oxygen species with the assistance of carboxylic acid, and active oxygen species further oxidize phenolic substrates. Based on its robust performances, the primary oxidative degradation of an emerging pollutant triclosan (TCS) is creatively applied, an important antiasthmatic medicine terbutaline sulfate (TBT) detection, and the synthesis of non-toxic and black near-natural dyes for dyeing. By simulating the essential mediators of natural enzymatic catalysis, an Mn MOF-based material that demonstrates multiple novel applications is successfully developed, which introduces a new reliable strategy for achieving versatile nature-mimicking catalysis.