Photocatalytic removal of dimethyl phthalate using heterogeneous photofenton process with zero iron nanoparticles

ABSTRACT

Phthalates are classified as priority pollutants due to their mutagenic, carcinogenic and endocrine disruptive effects. This study aimed at investigating the efficiency of heterogeneous photo Fenton process with zero iron nanoparticles (HPF/nZVI) in the removal of dimethyl phthalate (DMP) from aqueous media. For this purpose, we tried to use a UV-Vis Spectrophotometer device as a simple and available method instead of the chromatographic techniques for measuring DMP concentrations in aqueous samples. Hence, the DMP concentration in several samples was measured by the both HPLC device and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The results showed that the process efficiency increased from 56% to 96% with the increase in H₂O₂ dosage from 0.01 to 0.1 mM/L, respectively. By increasing the initial concentration of the DMP from 2 to 50 mg/L, the process efficiency was reduced from 99% to 74% after 120 min. According to the results, under optimal conditions, the HPF/nZVI process efficiency for the removal of DMP and COD was 94% and 77%, respectively, after 60 min of reaction time. In addition, the results indicated that the combined photocatalytic process of HPF/nZVI due to the synergistic effects of UV, H₂O₂ and nZVI in the production of hydroxyl radicals was more effective than the single mode in the removal of DMPs. Therefore, the proposed method can be used effectively to remove such pollutants and offered higher performance compared to the conventional methods.

KEYWORDS:

• Photocatalytic process
• heterogeneous photo-fenton
• wastewater treatment
• phthalates
• operation parameters optimisation

Acknowledge

The authors are grateful to the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Iran for providing financial and technical support. This project was financially supported by the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Technology, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (Grant number: 9,411,136,368).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences [9411136368].