DEGRADATION OF CHLOROETHANES IN DILUTE AQUEOUS-SOLUTION BY H2O2/UV

The destruction of organic pollutants in water can be achieved by the combination of oxidants or of oxidants with u.v. radiation (O-3/H2O2; H2O2/u.v.; O-3/u.v.). The efficiency of these advanced oxidation processes is accounted for by the generation of very reactive free radicals such as hydroxyl radicals. In this paper, experimental data are presented to examine the effect of physico-chemical parameters on the efficiency of the H2O2/u.v. process for the degradation of chloroethanes in dilute aqueous solution and to test a kinetic model for this oxidation process. The model is based on known reactions of OH radicals in water and on kinetic results obtained in a previous work for the photodecomposition of hydrogen peroxide (Nicole et al., 1990).