Abstract: As an economical and readily available carbon-containing material, carbon derived from biomass had been used in advanced oxidation fields. The advanced oxidation process based on sulfate radical was one of the effective approachs to degrade organic pollutants. In this review, the characteristics of persulfate and the reaction principle of oxidative degradation of organic pollutants were reviewed. The effects of non-metallic modification(nitrogen doping, boron doping and sulfur doping), metal modification and surface modification on the degradation of organic pollutants by persulfate activated by biochar materials were analyzed. The activation properties and mechanism of different kinds of biochar-based materials on persulfate, as well as the degradation effect and mechanism of the carbon-based materials on typical organic pollutants were discussed. Finally, the technical challenges and development prospects of carbon-based materials in the field of activated persulfate degradation of organic pollutants were proposed, in order to provide the reference for the research on persulfate degradation of organic pollutants.