UV based remediation of deionized and tap water contamined by five emerging pollutants

This research work regards the degradation of a mixture of five emerging pollutants (carbamazepine, diclofenac , benzophenone-3, benzophenone-4 and triton x-100)[ , ] in both deionized and tap water by means of UV photolysis, UV-H2O2[ ] and UV-TiO2[ ]. TiO2 microparticles dispersion and TiO2-coated quartz fibre[ ] were tested. The efficiency of the treatments has been determined by following the disappearance of the parent molecules by HPLC and evaluating the degree of mineralization via total organic carbon analysis. The different stability in the studied conditions of each compound and the kinetics of disappearance were ascertained. The four degradation methods have been compared in terms of pollutants removal and mineralization and the influence of matrix, time and catalyst/additive concentration has been also studied. UV-H2O2 results the most effective treatment in terms of mineralization; nonetheless UV-TiO2 showed to be a competitive and promising method for practical purpose. Comparing the two different types of photocatalysts, TiO2 immobilized onto quartz fibre leads to faster degradation of the five analytes than TiO2 dispersion. Chemometric analysis revealed a complex matrix effect, more pronounced in the case of the photocatalytic treatment.