Enhanced degradation of carbamazepine in FeOCl based Photo-Fenton reaction

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is one of the contaminants of emerging concerns due to its broad distribution in water environments. The present study evaluated various photo-Fenton reactions to achieve enhanced CBZ removal using FeOCl as the photo-Fenton catalyst that exhibited high activity in (OH)-O-center dot generation at a wide range of pH. The effects of UV irradiation, H2O2 concentration, initial CBZ concentration and catalyst dosage on the CBZ degradation efficiency were evaluated with uncertainty analysis. The H2O2 concentration of 10 mu M, a catalyst dosage of 0.2 g/L, and the initial concentration of CBZ of 100 mu M led to the highest CBZ removal rate of 92 % under UV/H2O2/FeOCl system within 0.5 h The effects of common anions (i.e., CO32-, HCO3, SO42-, NO3- and Cl-) on the CBZ degradation were studied. Three possible degradation pathways and three major degradation byproducts were analyzed by LC-ESI-MS, which would provide new insight into the degradation mechanisms of CBZ in photo-Fenton reactions.

Automated summary

Carbamazepine (CBZ) is a contaminant of emerging concern in water environments. Various photo-Fenton reactions using FeOCl as catalyst were evaluated for enhanced CBZ removal, achieving a high removal rate of 92% under UV/H2O2/FeOCl system. The study also analyzed the effects of common anions on CBZ degradation and identified three possible degradation pathways and byproducts.