Non-radical activation of peroxymonosulfate with oxygen vacancy-rich amorphous MnOX for removing sulfamethoxazole in water

• Amorphous MnO X with rich oxygen vacancy was synthesized by a hydrothermal method. • It exhibited high activity for removing sulfamethoxazole with PMS activation. • Activated PMS adsorbed on catalyst surface and 1 O 2 were the active species. • Surface Mn 4+ and oxygen vacancy are the active sites for PMS non-radical activation. Non-radical activation of peroxymonosulfate (PMS) is a promising technology for removing refractory organic pollutants. However, improving its efficiency is still a challenge due to its ambiguous mechanism. In this work, amorphous MnO X was synthesized through the hydrothermal reaction between KMnO 4 and carbon nanopowder. The characterization results indicate that the hydrothermal temperature had little effect on the structure of the products but affected their surface composition. The sample prepared at 180 °C (MnO X -180) had rich oxygen vacancies and exhibited high activity for sulfamethoxazole (SMX) degradation with PMS. More than 97% of SMX was removed within 30 min by 0.5 g L −1 of MnO X -180 and 1 mmol L −1 of PMS at pH 0 = 6.5. Activated PMS adsorbed on catalyst surface and singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) produced from the non-radical pathway were the active species. Surface Mn 4+ and oxygen vacancies were found to be responsible for the generation of activated PMS and 1 O 2 , respectively. The degradation efficiency of SMX by MnO X -180 increased with decreasing solution pH, which can be attributed to the enhanced production of activated PMS under acidic conditions. The water matrix had little effect on the performance of MnO X -180 due to the non-radical activation mechanism, suggesting its practical application in real water treatment.