Characterization of reactive oxygen species and their complex reactions in persulfate-based systems

Although there is close to exponential growth of fundamental research focused on persulfates chemistry, still many challenges have to be addressed. The general aim of this project is to deepen the knowledge concerning persulfates (and generated from them radicals) chemistry. This will be achieved by creating indicators for comparative evaluation among persulfate-based and traditional advanced oxidation processes (e.g. based on radicals formation yield). Moreover, thus developed standard procedures will help to scrutinize the role of various radicals / reactive oxygen species in different systems of activated persulfates. For this, both experimental and theoretical approaches will be established. We plan to extend this work to complicated matrices such as waste activated sludge in order to understand better chemistry of persulfates and the nature of the reactive oxygen species in such systems.