Photochemical mineralization of di-n-butyl phthalate with H2O2/Fe3+

This study evaluated the performance of photo-Fenton reaction initiated by the UV irradiation with H2O2/Fe3+, denoted as UV/H2O2/Fe3+, to decompose di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP) in the aqueous solution. The concentration of total organic carbon (TOC) was chosen as a mineralization index of the decomposition of DBP by the UV/H2O2/Fe3+ process. A second-order kinetic model with respect to TOC was adequately adopted to represent the mineralization of DBP by the UV/H2O2/Fe3+ process. The experimental results of this study suggested that the dosages with 4.74 × 10−5 mol min−1 L−1 H2O2 and initial Fe3+ loading concentration of 4.50 × 10−4 mol L−1 in the solution at pH 3.0 with 120 μW cm−2 UV (312 nm) provided the optimal operation conditions for the mineralization of DBP (5 mg L−1) yielding a 92.4% mineralization efficiency at 90 min reaction time.