AZO-DYE ORANGE II DEGRADATION IN PLASMA TORCH WITH GERDIEN ARC

Abstract

There is increasing interest for the degradation of organic compounds in contaminated and polluted waters. This paper deals with utilization of Gerdien arc for this purpose. The arc is generated in a plasma torch and is hybridly stabilized by water and argon. Gerdien arc features very high plasma temperatures and thus high intensity of short wave ultraviolet radiation. Water (for the arc stabilization) flows at the flow rate of 20 l.min−1 in a thin layer around the arc column. Thus, all water flowing through the torch passes the positions with high level of ultraviolet radiation. Azo-dye Orange II was used as a model organic compound. The certain amount of the dye was dissolved in a 40 l water system tank before every experiment. Degradation of the dye took place with high efficiency so that the fast decrease of a dye concentration during first minutes of experiments was observed. Measurements were done by means of UV/Vis spectroscopy and analyses of total carbon, total organic carbon, and total inorganic carbon.