Korea University · Environmental Science
Professor Mingcan Cui's research lab specializes in advanced oxidation processes for environmental remediation, focusing on the degradation of emerging contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, and toxic inorganics in water. The lab investigates sonochemical and persulfate-based oxidation technologies, leveraging ultrasound, ozone, and radical-based mechanisms to enhance pollutant mineralization and improve water quality. Key research directions include the activation of oxidants like peroxydisulfate and persulfate under ultrasonic irradiation, the development of sustainable sorbents from waste materials (e.g., coal mine sludge), and the optimization of reaction kinetics and mechanisms for real-world applications. The lab also emphasizes process efficiency, pH and operational parameter optimization, and the assessment of biodegradability improvement in treated wastewater.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
This study investigated the degradation of ibuprofen (IBP), an activated persulfate (PS), when subjected to ultrasonic (US) irradiation and mechanical mixing (M). The effects of several critical factors were evaluated, including the effect of rpm on M, PS concentration, and initial pH, and that of temperature on IBP degradation kinetics and the PS activation mechanism. The resulting IBP oxidation rate constant was significantly higher at 400 rpm. As the PS load increased, the IBP oxidation rate
In this study, we investigated the application of sludge waste obtained from a coal mine drainage treatment facility that treats acid mine drainage (designated as AMD) from metal-mine water. The coal mine drainage sludge (designated as CMDS), which contained 70% goethite and 30% calcite, was utilized as a sorption material for Cu(II) and Zn(II) removal from an aqueous solution of metallic mine drainage. The equilibriums and kinetics were investigated during a series of batch adsorption experimen
In this study, the sonochemical oxidation of cyanide in the presence of peroxydisulfate (PDS) ions has been investigated. As a result of experiments, sulfate anion radicals (·SO 4 - ) and hydroxide radicals (·OH) produced by PDS ions in acoustic cavitation could readily oxidize and even mineralize cyanide in an aqueous environment. When the frequency of ultrasound and PDS ions were applied at 450 kHz and 60 mg·L -1 , the efficiencies of mineralization for free cyanide (CN - ) and thiocyanate (SC
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