Decomposition of acetaminophen in water by a gas phase dielectric barrier discharge plasma combined with TiO2-rGO nanocomposite: Mechanism and degradation pathway

•Graphene Oxide-based catalyst was first applied with dielectric barrier discharge plasma.•The TiO2-rGO showed efficient synergistic effect with gas phase dielectric barrier discharge plasma.•The property changes of TiO2-rGO nanocomposite after plasma treatment were characterized.•The mechanism and possible pathways of APAP degradation in plasma/TiO2-rGO system were proposed. Acetaminophen (APAP) served as the model pollutant to evaluate the feasibility of pollutant removal by gas phase dielectric barrier discharge plasma combined with the titanium dioxide-reduced Graphene Oxide (TiO2-rGO) nanocomposite. TiO2-rGO nanocomposite was prepared using the modified hydrothermal method and characterized by TEM and XPS before and after plasma process. The results indicated that the APAP degradation efficiency was significantly improved to 92% after 18min of discharge plasma treatment coupling 0.25gL−1 TiO2-rGO 5%wt at 18kV, compared with the plasma alone and plasma combined with P25 TiO2. The degradation mechanism for APAP in this system was studied by investigating the effects of the operational variables (e.g. discharge voltage and pH value) and the amount of the generated active species; and the results showed that O3 and H2O2 yields were influenced notably by adding TiO2-rGO. Also, it was observed that, compared with unused TiO2-rGO, the photocatalytic performance of used TiO2-rGO declined after several recirculation times due to the further reduction of Graphene Oxide in plasma system. Finally, intermediate products were analyzed by UV–vis spectrometry and HPLC/MS, and possible transformation pathways were identified with the support of theoretically calculating the frontier electron density of APAP.