Singlet oxygen (¹O₂) is considered as the dominant reactive oxygen species (ROS) responsible for micropollutants degradation in many non-photochemical systems. However, the role of ¹O₂ in non-photochemical systems is overrated due to overlooking the fast quenching of ¹O₂ in water and the false positive results of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiments for ¹O₂ identification. Herein, we systematically compared the classical ¹O₂-generation H₂O₂/OCl⁻ system and some non-photochemical systems in pollutants oxidation, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiments and dimol emission of singlet oxygen in different solvents for the first time. The results showed that almost all ¹O₂ were deactivated by water and hardly consumed by micropollutants in non-photochemical systems considering the high deactivation rate constant of ¹O₂ in water. Moreover, the EPR signals of TEMPO free radical detected in non-photochemical systems may not precisely represent the existence of ¹O₂. These results indicated that some others ROS rather than ¹O₂, for example, dioxiranes in the ketone-catalysed decomposition of peroxomonosulfate (PMS), were responsible for the degradation of micropollutants in some non-photochemical systems, and further investigation about the real ROS are needed.

单重态氧（¹ O ₂）被认为是导致许多非光化学系统中微污染物降解的主要活性氧（ROS）。但是，由于忽略了水中¹ O ₂的快速淬灭和¹ O ₂鉴定的电子顺磁共振（EPR）实验的假阳性结果，因此¹ O ₂在非光化学系统中的作用被高估了。在此，我们系统地比较了经典¹ Ò ₂ -generationħ ₂ ö ₂ / OCL ^-系统和一些非光化学系统首次用于污染物的氧化，电子顺磁共振（EPR）实验和单线态氧在不同溶剂中的二摩尔排放。结果表明，考虑到¹ O ₂在水中的高失活速率常数，在非光化学体系中几乎所有¹ O ₂都被水失活，而微污染物几乎不消耗。此外，在非光化学系统中检测到的TEMPO自由基的EPR信号可能无法精确表示¹ O ₂的存在。这些结果表明还有一些ROS而不是¹ O ₂例如，在一些非光化学体系中，酮催化的过氧单硫酸盐（PMS）分解中的二恶英类化合物是导致微污染物降解的原因，因此需要进一步研究真正的ROS。