Emerging organic micropollutants, including organophosphate flame retardants, pesticides, herbicides, and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), threatens drinking water security. Many traditional water treatment methods (e.g., adsorption) are either insufficient to remove completely or cost prohibitive (e.g., reverse osmosis). Our research group has been working on advanced oxidation processes (i.e., photocatalysis, electrochemical oxidation and photo-Fenton reactions) to address the need to develop next-generation, scalable, and high efficient water treatment technologies, particularly for point-of-use (POU) water treatment devices. In this talk, we will present our recent studies using heterogeneous photo-Fenton reactions using goethite (α-FeOOH) to remove BPA as a model dye pollutant from water. α-FeOOH has a mesoporous structure with excellent photocatalytic performances and large specific surface area. The effects of organic acids and initial solution pHs on the photodegradation of BPA were particularly investigated to highlight the possibility to boost the generation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radicals (●OH). Different organic acids affected the formation of the ferric-carboxylate complexes and free radicals, which in turn varied the photodegradation efficacy. Compared with acetic acid (AA), citric acid (CA), malic acid (MA), and tartaric acidoxalic (TA), oxalic acid (OA) was found to be the most effective in enhancing the photodegradation of BPA due to the formation of ferric-oxalate complexes and ●OH radicals in the synergistic interactions of OA and α-FeOOH. Moreover, the addition of OA could significantly extend the working pH from acidic to neutral pH at 6.0 in the photocatalytic process, which help avoid the acidification pretreatment. The results lay foundation for development of effective and durable treatment technologies for micropollution mitigation and highlight the possibility of using organic acids to facilitate photo-Fenton reaction without water acidification.

Enhanced degradation of organic micropollutants via heterogeneous photo-Fenton reactions on α-FeOOH

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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