Response surface optimisation for corona discharge treatment of nicosulfuron in water

Sulfonylurea herbicides are the most widely used herbicides in the world, which are widely used in the prevention and control of weeds in rice, wheat, soybean and other fields. Long-term application will cause environmental pollution, and the use of plasma technology to degrade herbicides in water is expected to be an effective method to restore pollution. In this experiment, corona discharge plasma was used to treat nicosulfuron in water, and the response surface method was used to optimise the operating conditions of the single system of corona discharge treatment of nicosulfuron and the synergistic system of corona discharge treatment of nicosulfuron with the addition of persulfate. The results showed that the degradation rate of nicosulfuron was 75.08% after 10 min under the optimum operating condition of single system. Under the optimum operating conditions, the degradation rate of nicosulfuron after 10 min was 100%. The R² and <i>P</i> values of the two system models were both greater than 9.3 and less than 0.01, and the reliability of the simulated degradation rate data was verified by experiments, which provided basic data for the future research on the use of low temperature plasma to degrade herbicides.