Fig. 5: Universality of photocatalysts and pollutants mineralization.

a–c Degradation curves of five pollutants for CN, ACN and NACN, respectively; d The corresponding k_obs values; e–g CN degradation curves after the first step of thermal shear treatment with air, water steam and hydrogen, respectively. The error bars represent the standard deviation derived from three repeated experiments; h The HPLC chromatograms of IMD and its intermediates; i TOC removal in IMD degradation process; j The degradation pathway analysis of IMD in the PC-PMS system, and toxic evolution of intermediates in the two degradation pathways evaluated by ECOSAR (LC₅₀/EC₅₀: half-lethal/effective concentration; Not harmful: LC₅₀/EC₅₀ > 100 mg L⁻¹; Harmful: ¹00 mg L⁻¹ ≥ LC₅₀/EC₅₀ > 10 mg L⁻¹; Toxic: 10 mg L⁻¹ ≥ LC₅₀/EC₅₀ > 1 mg L⁻¹; Very Toxic: LC₅₀/EC₅₀ ≤ 1 mg L⁻¹; LC₅₀: Half lethal concentration; EC₅₀: Half effective concentration). The four different shades of red below each intermediate represent their acute and chronic toxicity to fish and daphnia, from left to right. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.