Paracetamol degradation and kinetics by advanced oxidation processes (AOPs): Electro-peroxone, ozonation, goethite catalyzed electro-fenton and electro-oxidation

Abstract

The advanced oxidation of paracetamol (PCT), frequently used analgesic, promoted by electro-oxidation (EOX), goethite catalyzed electro-Fenton (GEF) with goethite, ozonation and electro-peroxone (E-peroxone) was investigated. The degradation efficiency of the processes was evaluated considering the decay of PCT versus time. All the processes showed pseudo-first order character for PCT degradation. kobs values, at optimum conditions for an individual process, were defined as 0.0022, 0.0029, 0.0870 and 0.1662 min-1 for EOX, GEF, ozonation and E-peroxone processes, respectively. Where EOX and GEF processes showed poor degradation efficiencies, novel E-peroxone process provided complete removal of PCT. The degradation of the PCT would mostly occur by OH• and molecular O3 due to the higher rate constants achieved at E-peroxone and ozonation. Conversely, with lower kobs values gained at EOX, hydroxyl radicals would not contribute noticeably to the PCT degradation. In GEF process, due to relatively lower OH• production rate, lower kobs values were obtained for the degradation of PCT. The formation of reaction intermediates, aromatics and carboxylic acids, was also determined in this study.