Electrochemical degradation of methyl parathion

Abstract

This paper describes the degradation of commercially available methyl parathion by electro oxidation using Ti/RuO2 as anode, stainless steel as cathode and sodium chloride as a supporting electrolyte. Experiments were carried out at constant flow rate and various current densities such as 10, 12 and15 A/dm2 and various concentrations of sodium chloride. At regular time intervals, reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) has been investigated. From the results, addition of 14 g/l g of sodium chloride and applied current density of 15 A/dm2 give better degradation performance than the other. In addition to that degradation of methyl parathion was carried out at different pH ranges such as 4, 7 and 10 at standardised current density of 15 A/dm2. Results indicate that degradation of methyl parathion was more effective when the pH of the solution was at 4. The degradation of methyl parathion has been analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), NMR, UV-Vis spectra, FT-IR and TOC.