The valorization
of olive oil mill solid wastes (OMW) has been
addressed by considering it as a possible source of humic-like substances
(HLSs), to be used as auxiliary substances for photo-Fenton, employing
caffeine as a target pollutant to test the efficiency of this approach.
The OMW-HLS isolation encompassed the OMW basic hydrolysis, followed
by ultrafiltration and drying. OMW-HLS structural features have been
investigated by means of laser light scattering, fluorescence, size
exclusion chromatography, and thermogravimetric analysis; moreover,
the capability of OMW-HLS to generate reactive species under irradiation
has been investigated using spin-trap electronic paramagnetic resonance.
The caffeine degradation by means of photo-Fenton process driven at
pH = 5 was significantly increased by the addition of 10 mg/L of OMW-HLS.
Under the mechanistic point of view, it could be hypothesized that
singlet oxygen is not playing a relevant role, whereas other oxidants
(mainly OH
•
radicals) can be considered as the key
species in promoting caffeine degradation.
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