Persulphate advanced oxidation processes (PS-AOPs) constitute an important development in the field of wastewater treatment and subsurface contamination remediation within the last two decades. Although persulphate (PS) is a very powerful oxidant, its reaction with common contaminants is relatively slow so that to achieve pollutant degradation at an acceptable rate, activation to produce reactive radicals such as sulphate and hydroxyl radicals is often necessary. Consequently, research in PS-AOPs is dominated by the search for cost-effective and sustainable activation techniques. This review provides a critical evaluation of various published techniques for the activation of PS, suggests novel explanations for important observations in the field and advances proposals to explain reaction mechanisms more consistently. Discrepancies in results and areas for further studies were identified with the view of enhancing the sustainability and reliability of PS-AOPs.

在过去的二十年中，过硫酸盐高级氧化工艺（PS-AOP）构成了废水处理和地下污染修复领域的重要发展。尽管过硫酸盐（PS）是一种非常强大的氧化剂，但其与常见污染物的反应相对较慢，因此要以可接受的速率实现污染物降解，通常必须进行活化以产生反应性自由基，例如硫酸根和羟基自由基。因此，对PS-AOPs的研究主要是寻求具有成本效益和可持续的激活技术。这篇综述提供了对PS激活的各种公开技术的重要评估，为该领域的重要观察提供了新颖的解释，并提出了更一致地解释反应机制的建议。