Paracetamol Degradation via Visible-Light-Assisted Peroxymonosulfate Activation on HKUST-1 MOF

Paracetamol, increasingly detected in aquatic environments, is an emerging contaminant with potential risks to reproduction, hormonal balance, and ecosystem safety. Developing efficient and sustainable removal strategies is therefore essential. In this study, the copper-based metal–organic framework HKUST-1 was utilized as a photocatalyst to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) under visible-light irradiation for the degradation of paracetamol. The combined HKUST-1/PMS/Vis system demonstrated remarkable catalytic activity, achieving more than 90% removal of paracetamol within 150 minutes. This performance was significantly higher than that obtained using PMS or visible light individually, highlighting the strong synergistic interaction between the catalyst and PMS activation under visible light. Radical quenching experiments identified sulfate radicals (SO4•–) as the primary active species, with hydroxyl radicals (•OH) also contributing. Compared to PMS/Vis, the presence of HKUST-1 markedly accelerated the degradation rate, confirming a strong synergistic effect between photocatalysis and PMS activation. Moreover, HKUST-1 exhibited high stability and reusability, retaining performance over multiple cycles without structural degradation, as confirmed by PXRD. This study demonstrates that pristine HKUST-1 can serve as an effective and recyclable photocatalyst for pharmaceutical pollutant removal, offering new insights into MOF-based PMS activation under visible light.