Degradation of Diethyl Phthalate by Dielectric Barrier Plasma Coupled Magnetic Carbon Iron Nanorods Efficiency, Mechanism, Active Group, and Toxicity Evaluation
摘要
Phthalate contaminants are a significant threat to aquatic environments and human health and have attracted considerable attention from the environmental research community. Low-temperature plasma has proven effective for removing organic pollutants in water. However, due to its high energy consumption and incomplete mineralization, its application in wastewater treatment is limited. Therefore, this study combined a dielectric barrier plasma jet to synergize with Metal–organic Framework (MOF)-derived magnetic carbon iron nanorods (MCIN) to degrade diethyl phthalate in water and elucidate its degradation mechanism. The results showed that the best catalytic performance was achieved with MCIN prepared at 800 °C, and the DEP degradation and mineralization rates reached 97% and 70%, respectively, representing increases of 16% and 68% compared with the system without the catalyst. Through the analysis of active species, electron transfer among Fe, Fe(II), and Fe(III) through the carbon-iron structure could efficiently utilize the diffused H2O2 and O3 in water to generate more oxidizing reactive oxygen species, thus improving the degradation efficiency. The DEP molecular structure was optimized, and the reaction sites were predicted using the Fukui function. These results were combined with liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis to propose possible degradation pathways. Furthermore, biotoxicity analysis of the degradation intermediates and wheat experiments confirmed the potential applicability of the plasma + MCIN system employed in this study for treating wastewater containing plasticizers.