Oxidation and detoxification of fluoroquinolones via dual-wavelength ultraviolet (185 nm + 254 nm) excitation of peroxymonosulfate: Critical role of 185 nm photons, toxicity evolution, and environmental adaptation

作者：Chuang Wang, Xiao Li, Jinying Du, Jiaxin Wang, Renjian Deng, Yazhou Peng, Guocheng Zhu, Bozhi Ren · 发表于：Journal of Water Process Engineering · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.jwpe.2025.107787 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Antibiotics Pharmacokinetics and Efficacy、Analytical chemistry methods development、Advanced oxidation water treatment

The widespread use of fluoroquinolones (FQs) has posed serious threats to aquatic ecosystems and human health. Herein, vacuum ultraviolet (VUV), a dual-wavelength ultraviolet (185 nm + 254 nm), exciting peroxymonosulfate (PMS) was used for the first time to oxidize and detoxify FQs. VUV/PMS process showed absolute advantages over its sub-processes in oxidation of three FQs from aspects of degradation rate , mineralization , rate constant, energy consumption and technical cost. VUV/PMS eliminated norfloxacin (NOR) effectively in a wide pH range (3−11). Besides, hydroxyl radical and sulfate radical were assessed as dominating reactive oxygen species through fluorescence probe and radical quenching experiments in VUV/PMS, and they contributed 41.18 % and 26.47 % to NOR degradation with steady-state concentrations of 1.00 × 10 −10 and 1.94 × 10 −10 M separately. Moreover, synergistic mechanism of VUV/PMS was revealed, in which 185 nm photons played a key role. Pathways of NOR decomposition by VUV/PMS included piperazine ring conversion, defluorination , and quinolone ring conversion. Meanwhile, VUV/PMS achieved effective detoxification of NOR. Finally, the effect of water quality factors on the oxidation capacity of VUV/PMS was also surveyed and the practicability of VUV/PMS in three real waters was verified. All results manifested that VUV/PMS process had promising application in FQs removal.