EB degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonate in aqueous solution

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Electron beam (EB) degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in aqueous solutions was studied. It suggested that PFOA and PFOS degradation followed the pseudo-firstorder kinetics, and degradation rates increased with increasing initial pH. Radical scavengers’ experiments indicated that hydrated electron and hydrogen radical were important in the electron beam degradation of PFOA and PFOS, especially hydrated electron. The decomposition efficiencies were 95.7% for PFOA and 85.9% for PFOS, by EB irradiation in an anoxic alkaline solution (pH = 13). The potential degradation pathways of PFOA and PFOS by electron beam irradiation through defluorination and the removal of CH2 unit were proposed.