Sustainable and effective degradation of high concentration of aniline by acetylguanidine activated persulfate

Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) utilizing sodium persulfate (PDS) have garnered significant attention in recent years. In this study, acetylguanidine (ACG) was discovered to effectively activate PDS for organic contaminants degradation. The system achieved a degradation rate of 98.5% for aniline in wastewater within 50 min and 95.0% for aniline in soil within 3 h. The reaction system showed remarkable resilience, with only a minimal impact from common inorganic ions and organic compounds. The ACG/PDS system displayed robust and efficient performance across a broad pH range of 7.5–12.5. ACG-activated PDS system also demonstrated significantly superior performance in soil remediation compared to humic acid and WQ-8476. EPR and scavenging experiments revealed that ·OH were the dominant active species in the ACG/PDS system. Degradation pathways were proposed based on the degradation products identified through GC–MS analysis. This research provides valuable insights into the practical application of ACG/PDS system for industrial wastewater treatment and soil remediation. Graphical abstract