Abstract
Photocatalytic degradation of p-cresol was carried out using ZnO under UV irradiation. The amount of photocatalyst, concentration of p-cresol and pH were studied as variables. The residual concentration and mineralization of p-cresol was monitored using a UV-visible spectrophotometer and total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer, respectively. The intermediates were detected by ultra high pressure liquid chromatography (UPLC). The highest photodegradation of p-cresol was observed at 2.5 g/L of ZnO and 100 ppm of p-cresol. P-cresol photocatalytic degradation was favorable in the pH range of 6–9. The detected intermediates were 4-hydroxy-benzaldehyde and 4-methyl-1,2-benzodiol. TOC studies show that 93% of total organic carbon was removed from solution during irradiation time. Reusability shows no significant reduction in photocatalytic performance in photodegrading p-cresol.
Highlights
Photocatalysis is a subject of interest in view of its prosperous application in pollutant decontamination
The number of adsorbed p-cresol molecules increased with the increase in the number of photocatalyst particles, increase the percentage of photodegradation [27]
A part of the photocatalyst surface probably becomes unavailable for photon absorption and p-cresol adsorption, reduces the photocatalytic reaction
Summary
Photocatalysis is a subject of interest in view of its prosperous application in pollutant decontamination. The current interest in ZnO is based on its high spectral response in UV region, which presumably, in some studies, resulted in higher efficiency of photocatalytic degradation well over TiO2 [8,9,10,11,12]. ZnO photocatalysis has been proposed as an alternative in the removal of various aqueous pollutants including phenolic compounds [13,14,15,16,17,18,19]. The effect of operational parameters on photocatalytic degradation of m-cresol [25] and o-cresol [26] was reported by UV and visible/ZnO process. We undertake to investigate the effect of operating parameters such as p-cresol concentration, amount of photocatalyst and pH on degradation efficiency. The mineralization and photoproducts were investigated by total organic carbon (TOC) measurement and Waters-Acquity ultra high pressure liquid chromatography (UPLC)
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