Degradation of paracetamol in aqueous solution: comparison of different uv induced advanced oxidation

Katia González-Labrada (1, 2) , Isariebel Quesada-Peñate (2) , Filipa Aleksandrova Velichkova (2) , Carine Julcour-Lebigue (2) , Caroline Andriantsiferana (2) , Marie-Hélène Manero (2) , Claire Albasi (2) , Ulises Javier Jáuregui Haza (3)

1 Universidad Tecnológica de la Habana José Antonio Echeverría - CUJAE (CUBA)
2 LGC - Laboratoire de Génie Chimique
3 Instituto Superior de Tecnologias y Ciencias Aplicadas - InSTEC (CUBA)

Environmental hazards are a consequence of the massive use of synthetic chemicals that are prevalent in nearly every aspect of modern life. The outburst of the so-called "emerging pollutans" (pharmaceuticals and pesticides among others) generates an additional problem due to the scarce available information on their impact on the environment or their interferences with the biological processes. Among them, paracetamol is one of the drugs the most widely found in hospital effluents, in the effluents of wastewater treatment plants, as well as in rivers. In this work, the feasibility of paracetamol degradation by different processes based on ultraviolet radiation is discussed: photolysis, photo-oxidation with hydrogen peroxide, photo-fenton reaction, and heterogeneous photocatalysis with TiO2 are evaluated. The best results are obtained with the photo-fenton process, for which more than 99% of the pharmaceutical is degraded within 5 minutes. At best experimental conditions the mineralization was superior to 75% after one hour of reaction.

Mots clés: Acetaminophen; Photolysis; UV/H2O2; Photo-fenton; UV/TiO2

Domaines: Génie chimique; Génie des procédés

Katia González-Labrada, Isariebel Quesada-Peñate, Filipa Aleksandrova Velichkova, Carine Julcour-Lebigue, Caroline Andriantsiferana, et al.. Degradation of paracetamol in aqueous solution: comparison of different uv induced advanced oxidation. Latin American Applied Research, 2016, 46 (3), pp.115-120. ⟨hal-02134787⟩