Enhanced degradation of ibuprofen using a combined treatment of plasma and Fenton reactions

Advanced oxidation technologies (AOTs) proved to be effective in the degradation of hazardous organic impurities like acids, dyes, antibiotics etc. in the last few decades. AOTs are mainly based on the gener-ation of reactive chemical species (RCS) such as hydroxyl, superoxide radicals etc., which plays an impor-tant role in the degradation of organiccompounds. In this work, plasma supported AOT i.e. Fenton reactions have been applied for the degradation of ibuprofen. As compared to traditional AOTs plasma assisted AOT is technologically superior due to its capability to produce RCS at a controlled rate without using chemical agents. This process work at normal room temperature and pressure. Herein, we opti-mized better operating conditions to generate good plasma discharge and hydroxyl radicals based on crit-ical parameters, including frequency, pulse width and different gases like O2, Ar etc. Also, the one-pot carbonization method is used for the synthesis of Fe-based ordered mesoporous carbon (OMC) as a heterogeneous catalyst for the Fenton reactions. Using plasma-supported Fenton reactions, 88.3 % degra-dation efficiency is achieved using Fe-OMC catalyst for the ibuprofen degradation. Also, the mineraliza-tion of the ibuprofen is studied using total organic carbon (TOC) analysis.(c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Advanced oxidation technologies (AOTs) have been shown to be effective in degrading hazardous organic impurities. In this study, plasma-supported AOT, specifically Fenton reactions, were used for ibuprofen degradation. Compared to traditional AOTs, plasma-assisted AOT allows for controlled generation of reactive chemical species without the use of chemical agents. Optimized operating conditions and a Fe-based ordered mesoporous carbon catalyst were used to achieve 88.3% degradation efficiency of ibuprofen through plasma-supported Fenton reactions. The mineralization of ibuprofen was also studied using total organic carbon (TOC) analysis.