Sulfate radical (SO₄^•–) is believed to be one of the most highly reactive oxidants, as superior as hydroxyl radical (HO^•), for various organic/inorganic contaminants removal in the field of pollution control chemistry. In the recent decade, sulfate radical-based advanced oxidation processes (SR-AOPs) have been developed quickly primarily due to the selective oxidation and high oxidative potential and therefore hold great promises. Although peroxydisulfate (PDS) and peroxymonosulfate (PMS) have been extensively utilized in various SR-AOPs, new attempts have been made to replace PDS/PMS with sulfite for the purpose of SO₄^•– generation at lower cost. Indeed, some significant progresses have been achieved in driving SO₄^•– generation from transient metal catalyzed sulfite auto-oxidation systems to oxidize contaminants. The background, basic mechanisms, and application of the transition metal catalyzed sulfite auto-oxidation systems in contaminants detoxification and microorganism inactivation are reviewed in this work. Meanwhile, we hereby also want to point out several important unresolved issues for future investigation. (1) How to realize quick reactions at near neutral pH? (2) How to achieve high rate of mineralization as equally as or at least close to the apparent complete elimination of substrates? (3) What are the relative contributions of various oxysulfur radicals to the transformation of contaminants. (4) Is it possible to control the extent of substrates oxidation so as to get target transformed products with desired properties? If so, SR-AOPs can be upgraded as product-oriented AOPs (PO-AOPs). This state-of-art minireview aims to discuss abovementioned issues and presents some recent progresses in this field.

硫酸根（SO ₄ ^•–）被认为是反应性最高的氧化剂之一，在污染控制化学领域中，它能比羟基（HO ^•）更好地去除各种有机/无机污染物。在最近的十年中，主要由于选择性氧化和高氧化电位，基于硫酸根的先进氧化工艺（SR-AOP）得到了迅速发展，因此具有广阔的前景。尽管过氧二硫酸盐（PDS）和过氧一硫酸盐（PMS）已在各种SR-AOP中广泛使用，但为降低SO ₄ ^•生成的目的，人们进行了新的尝试以亚硫酸盐代替PDS / PMS 。确实，在推动SO ₄方面已经取得了一些重大进展。^•–瞬态金属催化的亚硫酸盐自动氧化系统产生的氧化产物来氧化污染物。本文对过渡金属催化的亚硫酸盐自动氧化系统的背景，基本机理及其在污染物排毒和微生物灭活中的应用进行了综述。同时，我们还想指出一些未解决的重要问题，以供将来研究。（1）如何在接近中性pH的条件下实现快速反应？（2）如何达到与完全消除底物相等或至少接近的高矿化率？（3）各种氧硫自由基对污染物转化的相对贡献是什么。（4）是否可以控制底物的氧化程度，以获得具有所需性能的目标转化产物？如果是这样，SR-AOP可以升级为面向产品的AOP（PO-AOP）。这项最新的小型审查旨在讨论上述问题，并介绍该领域的一些最新进展。