Accurate recognition and catalysis of sulfapyridine by MnOx-GAC molecularly imprinted: Kinetics, mechanism and degradation pathways

Conventional wastewater treatment processes struggle to effectively degrade antibiotics due to their low concentration, high toxicity and poor degradability. Significant concentration of antibiotic drugs and intermediates persist in discharged effluent, posing serious threats to human health and aquatic ecosystem safety. Manganese-based activated carbon (MnOx-GAC) and molecular imprinting (MIP) were synthesized in 70°C to form MnOx-GAC/MIP at 2 mmol methacrylic acid, 3.35 mmol sulfapyridine(SPY) and 10 mmol EDGMA, promoting selectively recognize and target catalytic degradation of SPY. Compared with non-targeted catalysts, the targeted catalytic ability of the MnOx-GAC/MIP by the hydrothermal method for SPY was enhanced by 2.7 times at 0.24 g/L MnOx-GAC/MIP, 6 mg/L PDS and initial pH 3. In the MnOx-GAC/MIP-PDS system, the SPY degradation mainly proceeds via the chemical bond breakage, followed by its methylation. The second-order rates of • OH (4.75×10 10 M -1 s -1 ) and SO 4 •- (1.30×10 10 M -1 s -1 ) reacting with SPY clarified • OH reacted with SPY faster than SO 4 •- . The proposal of targeted degradation methods would facilitate the efficient degradation of trace antibiotics.