Paracetamol mineralization by Photo Fenton process catalyzed by a Cu/Fe-PILC under circumneutral pH conditions

This study presents an iron-pillared clay (Fe-PILC) ion-exchanged with copper (Cu/Fe-PILC), as an efficient catalyst to conduct the mineralization of paracetamol through photo-Fenton process at near to neutral pH without precipitation of Fe complexes and without adding any chemicals to modify the initial pH. The specific surface area of the catalyst was of 110 m(2) g(-1) and with the following phases FeO, Fe3O4, Cu2O, CuO determined by XPS analyses. Around 80% of mineralization was reached either by conducting the process at acidic and circumneutral pH conditions, and the efficiency was not significantly higher at pH = 2.7. The intermediate reaction products generated at both pH conditions essayed and detected by LC-MS were hydroquinone, acetamide and oxamic acid. Catalyst Cu/Fe-PILC showed an iron leaching of about 3% after reaction while the reusability of the catalyst involved a decrease in mineralization of only 3% under circumneutral conditions. The final TOC of about 20% can be ascribed to the presence of acetamide that was found to be the most reluctant towards oxidation.