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Homogeneous photocatalytic oxidation of UV filter para-aminobenzoic acid in aqueous solutions

  • Advances and trends in Advanced Oxidation processes
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Abstract

The presence of personal care product (PCP) residues in the aquatic environment is an emerging issue due to their uncontrolled release through graywater; for this reason, efforts are being made to develop methods to inactivate or eliminate this class of substances in the environment. In this work, homogeneous photocatalysis has been applied for the degradation of UV filter para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), which exists in several types of PCPs, in order to identify the optimum degradation conditions. The oxidation of PABA by photo-Fenton and oxalate-induced photo-Fenton (ferrioxalate) processes was investigated, and the effect of various operating variables has been assessed, i.e., Fe3+ (0.0035–0.014 g L−1), H2O2 (0.025–0.2 g L−1), T (280–323 K), and type of radiation (UV-A, visible). Furthermore, experiments under optimal conditions have been performed in order to evaluate the transformation pathways and phytotoxicity of the treated PABA solution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Sophia Tsoumachidou & Ioannis Poulios

  2. Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Dimitra Lambropoulou

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  1. Sophia Tsoumachidou
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  2. Dimitra Lambropoulou
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  3. Ioannis Poulios
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Correspondence to Ioannis Poulios.

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Responsible editor: Suresh Pillai

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Tsoumachidou, S., Lambropoulou, D. & Poulios, I. Homogeneous photocatalytic oxidation of UV filter para-aminobenzoic acid in aqueous solutions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 1113–1121 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7434-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7434-2

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