Efficiency of the catalytic ozonation processes using nanoparticles deposited on pumice in the removal of bisphenol A

ABSTRACT

Endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) areconsidered as an emerging group of trace contaminants detected in the environment worldwide. Bisphenol A (BPA) is one of these toxic pollutants that arereleased mainlyfrom industries and can cause serious health and environmental problems.Thus, in this study, titanium dioxide and zirconium dioxide particles were deposited on pumice, and then the efficiencies of O₃/nTiO₂/H₂O₂ and O₃/nZrO₂/H₂O₂on BPA removal were studied under different operational conditions. The results showed thatBPA removal efficiency was increased by increasing the pH, contact time, catalyst dosage and concentration of H₂O₂ and maximum removal efficiency for both studied processes was ≈100% at optimum conditions, i.e. pH of 11, are action time of 30 min, catalyst dosages of 4 g/L for O₃/nTiO₂/H₂O₂ and 12 g/L for O₃/nZrO₂/H₂O₂, H₂O₂ concentration of 2 mmol/L for O₃/nZrO₂/H₂O₂and 5 mmol/L for O₃/nTiO₂/H₂O₂, and initial BPA concentrations of 20 mg/L.Increasing the catalyst dose to a certain level, increases the production of hydroxyl radicals, which, in turn, increases the degradation of BPA. The pumice XRD pattern coated with TiO₂ and ZrO₂ nanoparticles shows the main and derivative elements of pumice, including pyroxene, magnetite feldspar mica, and SiO₂.FTIR spectra for TiO₂ and ZrO₂ nanoparticles showed that the peaks at 455 and 457 cm⁻¹ are related to the C-N-C bands in amine functional groups. We found that the studied integrated catalytic ozonation processes (COP)have high efficiency in removing BPA, therefore it can be used as asuitable and effective methods for removal of such organic pollutants from aqueous solution.

KEYWORDS:

• Bisphenol A
• catalytic ozonation processes
• zirconium dioxide nanoparticle
• titanium dioxide nanoparticle
• pumice

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Vice Chancellery for Research at Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (Grant number: 9503111009).