Perfluorooctanoate and perfluoroctanesulfonate (PFOX) are environmentally persistent, recalcitrant to oxidation, and resistant to conventional chemical treatments. The related studies on the exploration and establishment of the effective removal techniques for PFOX have become the new hotspot to the degradation of organic pollutants in the field of environmental technology. Recently, highly active oxidation methods for the efficient degradation of PFOX were developed through the promotion effect of various physical processes on the oxidation ability of conventional chemical methods. So this paper reviews the concerned reports which employed the single chemical oxidation approach and the coupling techniques of physical processes and chemical oxidation for the removal of PFOX. The coupling effects of physical methods and chemical oxidation processes can result in photolysis, electrolysis, pyrolysis, sonolysis, plasma-induced oxidation, microwave-induced oxidation, or mechanochemistry destruction of PFOX. For each coupling physicochemical techniques, the mechanism of the oxidative reaction, the detailed degradation pathway of PFOX, the effect of various influential factors on reaction process as well as the removal efficiency and energy consumption are summarized in this paper. It is also introduced for the progress on these above studies and further discussion about current problems for these techniques. In addition, the future trends for the development of these techniques to PFOX degradation are prospected for their practicality.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 PFOX oxidation only by chemical reagents
3 Oxidative degradation of PFOX by various physicochemical processes
3.1 PFOX degradation by photochemistry
3.2 PFOX degradation by electrochemistry
3.3 PFOX degradation by thermochemistry
3.3.1 High-temperature pyrolysis
3.3.2 Ultrasonic pyrolysis
3.4 PFOX degradation by plasma
3.5 Microwave-assisted PFOX degradation
3.5 PFOX degradation by mechanochemistry
4 Conclusions and prospects