Photocatalytic degradation of 17α‐ethynylestradiol in environmental samples by ZnO under simulated solar radiation

摘要: BACKGROUND: Recently, the fate of emerging micro-contaminants in environmentally relevant samples has attracted considerable attention. Semiconductor photocatalysis may offer an appealing methodology to treat such contaminants; this respect, degradation synthetic estrogen 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) employing simulated solar radiation and ZnO as photocatalyst was investigated. RESULTS: A factorial design approach adopted evaluate effect concentration (100–500 µg L−1), (50-500 mg L−1 suspension), treatment time (2-10 min), photon flux (4.93 × 10−7–5.8 10−7 einstein s−1) water matrix (ultrapure treated wastewater) on EE2 removal. The first four variables had a statistically important, positive degradation, while introduced negative presumably due competition between effluent organic inorganic matter for hydroxyl radicals other oxidizing species. Moreover, second-order interactions with were also significant. follows first-order kinetics respective rate constants wastewater being 9.2 ± 0.7 10−2 41 8 min−1 at maximum flux. On hand, removal effluent's overall estrogenicity (as assessed by yeast screening bioassay) order magnitude lower than that EE2, implying presence persistent estrogenic compounds photocatalyzed effluent. CONCLUSIONS: An effective process is demonstrated which benefits from use renewable energy stable highly active photocatalyst. Copyright © 2012 Society Chemical Industry