Rational design to manganese and oxygen co-doped polymeric carbon nitride for efficient nonradical activation of peroxymonosulfate and the mechanism insight

Polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) based materials have emerged as promising catalysts to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) for organic pollutant removal. In this work, the Mn and O co-doped polymeric carbon nitride (Mn/O-PCN) was synthesized via simple calcination and activated PMS for enrofloxacin (ENR) removal. The obtained Mn/O-PCN + PMS system exhibited excellent reactivity for ENR degradation. The Mn and O co-dopants could modulate the electronic structure of PCN. ENR can be oxidized by electrons transferring and 1O2 on the surface of Mn/O-PCN + PMS complex via a non-radical way. A positive correlation was observed between ENR oxidation rates and the Mn content. Effects of pH, PMS concentration, and different ions on the degradation of ENR have also been studied. Cycling experiments showed that Mn/O-PCN materials have good reusability. Our study reported an effective PMS activator for organic pollutants removal and revealed the mechanism of active sites in modified PCN during non-radical PMS activation.