TY - JOUR
T1 - Kinetic modelling of the photocatalytic degradation of Diisobutyl phthalate and coupling with acoustic cavitation
AU - Pang, Xinzhu
AU - Sarvothaman, Varaha P.
AU - Skillen, Nathan
AU - Wang, Zhe
AU - Rooney, David W.
AU - Ranade, Vivek V.
AU - Robertson, Peter K.J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022/9/15
Y1 - 2022/9/15
N2 - Phthalates are widely used plasticizers, but have endocrine-disrupting effects, which cause harm to both humans and the wider environment. Photocatalytic technologies have been shown to be promising methods for removal of a range of environmental pollutants in water. In this paper the photocatalytic oxidation of Diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP) using two common commercial catalysts, TiO2 and ZnO is assessed. Both photocatalysts proved to be effective in removing > 90% of the compound in less than 25 min of treatment. Pseudo-first kinetics were initially used to describe the kinetics of the process, but were found to poorly describe the kinetics, which was believed to be a result of not accounting for the influence of intermediates. A new kinetic model is proposed to account for intermediate formation, which described the experimental data better. In addition, the incorporation of acoustic cavitation (AC) with photocatalysis (PC) was tested for DiBP degradation. The hybrid process enhanced the DiBP degradation rate and a synergistic index of 1.5 and 2.2 observed for TiO2 and ZnO respectively. The effect of pH on DiBP degradation was investigated and it showed that on both photocatalysts, reaction rates were higher when pH was greater than the point of zero charge for the photocatalyst. These results demonstrated the feasibility of photocatalysis for DiBP removal and the potential of AC to enhance the PC process for removal of phthalates from water. This new kinetic model proposed will be useful for the design of AOP based water treatment as it predicts the kinetics of the process more accurately than the commonly used pseudo first order kinetic model.
AB - Phthalates are widely used plasticizers, but have endocrine-disrupting effects, which cause harm to both humans and the wider environment. Photocatalytic technologies have been shown to be promising methods for removal of a range of environmental pollutants in water. In this paper the photocatalytic oxidation of Diisobutyl phthalate (DiBP) using two common commercial catalysts, TiO2 and ZnO is assessed. Both photocatalysts proved to be effective in removing > 90% of the compound in less than 25 min of treatment. Pseudo-first kinetics were initially used to describe the kinetics of the process, but were found to poorly describe the kinetics, which was believed to be a result of not accounting for the influence of intermediates. A new kinetic model is proposed to account for intermediate formation, which described the experimental data better. In addition, the incorporation of acoustic cavitation (AC) with photocatalysis (PC) was tested for DiBP degradation. The hybrid process enhanced the DiBP degradation rate and a synergistic index of 1.5 and 2.2 observed for TiO2 and ZnO respectively. The effect of pH on DiBP degradation was investigated and it showed that on both photocatalysts, reaction rates were higher when pH was greater than the point of zero charge for the photocatalyst. These results demonstrated the feasibility of photocatalysis for DiBP removal and the potential of AC to enhance the PC process for removal of phthalates from water. This new kinetic model proposed will be useful for the design of AOP based water treatment as it predicts the kinetics of the process more accurately than the commonly used pseudo first order kinetic model.
KW - Hybrid AOPs
KW - Kinetic modelling
KW - Photocatalysis
KW - Phthalate
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129501599&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2022.136494
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2022.136494
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129501599
SN - 1385-8947
VL - 444
JO - Chemical Engineering Journal
JF - Chemical Engineering Journal
M1 - 136494
ER -