Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are contaminants in water worldwide and the effects of the accumulation of these contaminants in the environment are a growing concern. Current water treatment methods to address these organic contaminants involve chlorination with sodium hypochlorite or calcium hypochlorite and chloramination, which have the potential to create chlorinated by-products that are possibly more harmful than the starting material that was the target of decomposition. Alternative methods to chlorination are advanced oxidation processes (AOP). The aim of this study is to identify by-products of an AOP method that utilizes UV irradiation to generate hydroxyl radicals from H2O2 to strongly oxidize and remove organic pollutants. Results of experiments in which model PPCP compounds degraded by UV/H2O2 at varying pHs, and the mechanism of degradation, will be discussed. Analysis of by-products is carried out both by LCMS and by GCMS after samples are freeze-dried and derivatized via silylation.

Mechanistic study of photochemical and advanced oxidation processes for degradation of pharmaceuticals in water

256th National Meeting (2018)

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