Degradation of herbicide atrazine in water by high voltage electrical discharge in comparison with Fenton oxidation and ultrasound treatments

Atrazine, the most commonly used herbicide, has been reported to pollute the water environment and do harm to human health. It is thus urgent to find an efficient way to degrade atrazine. Although various advanced oxidation processes including high voltage electrical discharge (HVED) have been applied to degrade atrazine, the formation kinetics of its metabolites are still incomplete, and the detoxification of the degradation process remains to be clarified. Here, the degradation of atrazine by HVED was investigated, in comparison with traditional Fenton oxidation and ultrasound treatment. Nineteen metabolites of atrazine degradation were identified and quantified by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC-HRMS) techniques. Results show that HVED is more advantageous because of its high degradation rate for atrazine (89%), short processing time (1000 s, corresponding to 10 ms effective time), and the presence of the less toxic main metabolite hydroxyatrazine. Hydroxyl radicals (˙OH) play an important role in atrazine degradation. Adding ferrous ions (Fe2+) during HVED and ultrasound processes is beneficial for the degradation of atrazine, because of the ˙OH radicals released from hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Based on the formation kinetics of atrazine degradation metabolites, detailed mechanisms of atrazine degradation pathways were proposed.