Green polyaspartic acid as a novel permanganate activator for enhanced degradation of organic contaminants: Role of reactive Mn(III) species

Attention has been long focused on enhancing permanganate (Mn(VII)) oxidation capacity for eliminating organic contaminants via generating active manganese intermediates (AMnIs). Nevertheless, limited consideration has been given to the unnecessary consumption of Mn(VII) due to the spontaneous disproportionation of AMnIs during their formation. In this work, we innovatively introduced green polyaspartic acid (PASP) as both reducing and chelating agents to activate Mn(VII) to enhance the oxidation capacity and utilization efficiency of Mn(VII). Multiple lines of evidence suggest that Mn(III), existing as Mn(III)-PASP complex, was generated and dominated the degradation of bisphenol A (BPA) in the Mn(VII)/PASP system. The stabilized Mn(III) species enabled Mn(VII) utilization efficiency in the Mn(VII)/PASP system to be higher than that in Mn(VII) alone. Moreover, the electrophilic Mn(III) species was verified to mainly attack the inclusive benzene ring and isopropyl group to realize BPA oxidation and its toxicity reduction in the Mn(VII)/PASP system. In addition, the Mn(VII)/PASP system showed the potential for selectively oxidizing organic contaminants bearing phenol and aniline moieties in real waters without interference from most of coexisting water matrices. This work brightens an overlooked route to both high oxidation capacity and efficient Mn(VII) utilization in the Mn(VII)-based oxidation processes.