Due to the stability and strong oxidizing properties of persulfate (PS), persulfate-based advanced oxidation processes (PS-AOPs) has attracted extensive attention in recent years, especially in the remediation of organic pollutants. Persulfate typically requires catalysts for efficiently removal of organic pollutants, which carbon materials have become good catalysts of persulfate as a result of being green, high efficiency and cost-effective. Therefore, in recent years, significant progress has been made in the research and exploration of activated persulfate technology for carbon materials, covering aspects such as degradation mechanisms, types of carbon materials, influencing factors, and technological coupling. But there are few systematic review articles related to these advances. So this paper reviews these advances and provides a prospect on the development and applications of this technology.