The degradation intermediates were analyzed using UPLC-MS/MS to investigate the possible degradation pathways of FLO by ZVI/SiC. As shown in Table S1 (Supporting information), a total of 7 intermediates were identified based on the MS analysis and previous literatures [
25], namely
TP229, TP247, TP271, TP279, TP289, TP337, TP339, with corresponding molecular formulas of C
10H
12NO
2FS, C
10H
14O
3NFS, C
12H
15NO
3FS, C
11H
12Cl
2FNO
2, C
12H
16NO
4FS, C
12H
13NO
4SCl
2, C
12H
12NO
3FSCl
2, respectively. Among them,
TP247 and
TP289, with two chlorine atoms removed, were the main intermediates. The concentration of Cl
− increased as the FLO concentration decreased, achieving an 81.4% chloride mass balance if two Cl
− were removed from FLO (
Fig. 3a). Moreover, the remove of FLO was not affected by the addition of 1 mmol/L to 100 mmol/L TBA (a quenching agent for hydroxyl radicals (
•OH)) (
Fig. 3b, details of the degradation kinetics of FLO by ZVI/SiC with different TBA concentration were shown in Fig. S4 in Supporting information), as well as anoxic condition (
Fig. 3c). This ruled out the
•OH-mediated oxidation of FLO, as previous studies reported that iron-based systems can generate
•OH through the activation of O
2 [
25–
27]. These results suggest that FLO was primarily degraded through the reductive dechlorination process. To investigate this speculation, semi-quantification results of different FLO degradation products were introduced to comprehensively evaluate changes in the overall toxicity of the products. As depicted in
Fig. 4a, the relative abundance of
TP339 and
TP247 initially peaked at around the 5-min mark, then subsequently decreased throughout the degradation process. Concurrently, the relative abundance of
TP289 and
TP271 displayed a gradual increment. These findings imply that FLO primarily transforms into
TP339, which subsequently converts into
TP289, TP271 and
TP247, eventually undergoing hydrolysis to form
TP229. It is noteworthy that each of these transformations involves reductive dechlorination, with the simultaneous removal of two chlorine atoms. Furthermore,
Fig. 3c illustrates that dechlorination predominantly occurs during the initial half of the one-hour reaction period. This research underscores the significance of ZVI in the reduction of chlorinated organic compounds, traditionally conceived in terms of the dechlorination process. However, our study revealed that dehydration and deacetylation also contribute to the degradation of FLO, in addition to dechlorination. Indeed, both processes-dichlorination and deacetylation can be classified as hydrogenolysis reactions. In this context, active hydrogen (H*) assumes a significant role as a potent reductive agent, effectively promoting the degradation of pollutants by cleaving the
σ bond. This introduces an innovative mechanism for the reductive dechlorination of chlorinated organics by ZVI [
28–
30].