Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6308424 | Chemosphere | 2014 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
Amaranth dye is an organic compound largely used in the food and beverage industries with potential toxicity effects on humans. It can be found as a pollutant species in aquatic environments and has been classified as an endocrine disruptor. This study describes amaranth degradation upon ultrasonication associated with an electrochemical system that uses a boron-doped diamond anode BDD, defined as a sonoelectrochemical process. Ninety-minute electrolyses were performed using current densities in the 10-50Â mAÂ cmâ2 range, and the concentration decay, pH, energy and current efficiencies, as well as the discoloration rate were evaluated. The amaranth concentration decayed as a function of electrolysis time and the reactions obeyed pseudo first-order kinetics, with an apparent constant rate between 10â1 and 10â3Â minâ1. The electrochemical and sonoelectrochemical processes at 35Â mAÂ cmâ2 yielded TOC removal values between 92.1% and 95.1% respectively, after 90Â min. Current efficiency values obtained for both processes were 18.2% and 23.6%. Exhaustive 5Â h electrolysis was performed and the degradation products were identified by HPLC-MS. A mechanism for the degradation of amaranth was proposed based on an analysis of the aromatic and aliphatic intermediates.
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Authors
Juliana R. Steter, Willyam R.P. Barros, Marcos R.V. Lanza, Artur J. Motheo,