Degradation of atrazine by Fenton and modified Fenton reactions

Abstract

For 50 years, farmers around the world have relied on the herbicide atrazine—one of the triazine family of herbicides—to fight weeds in corn, grain sorghum, sugar cane, and other crops. Although prohibited in the European Union because of widespread contamination of waterways and drinking water supplies, it is still one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. Atrazine and some of its degradation products are among the most commonly found xenobiotics in groundwater and soils in the world. It is also an endocrine disruptor that causes abnormal reproductive development and immune suppression in wildlife. The purpose of this study was to identify the degradation products of atrazine. Fenton reaction treatment, a hydroxyl radical oxidation process recently developed for the degradation of aqueous pesticide waste, was applied to the degradation of atrazine. Classical and modified Fenton reactions have been used as Advanced Oxidation Process treatment methods. A HPLC method was developed and optimized for the identification of resulting degradation products. In general, very good atrazine degradation efficiencies were achieved by both of the methods used. The degradation products, such as oxalic acid, urea, formic acid, acetic acid, and acetone, were identified by HPLC with a photodiode array detector.