Photolysis of In-Situ Electrogenerated Hydrogen Peroxide for the Degradation of Emerging Pollutants

Abstract

This study investigates the degradation of paracetamol, an emerging contaminant widely used as pain and fever reliever, by means of hydrogen peroxide either alone or in combination with UV-C photolysis.
In particular, we provide a comparison between the performance of both commercial and electrogenerated H₂O₂ whose production has been achieved by galvanostatic electrolysis in undivided reactor with a gas diffusion cathode.
The performance of the treatments has been assessed in terms of both pollutant decay and mineralization. The influence of the H₂O₂ to paracetamol molar ratio is discussed.
The results show that the electrogenerated hydrogen peroxide, when activated by UV-C irradiation, results in faster degradation and mineralization of paracetamol. However, under the conditions adopted, complete depletion of the total organic carbon (TOC) has never been attained.