Degradation of Triton X‐100 in Water Falling Film Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the degradation of the non‐ionic surfactant Triton X‐100 (TX‐100) by using an advanced oxidation process in a non‐thermal plasma reactor based on water falling film dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The effects of two catalytic plasma systems, Fe2+/DBD and H2O2/DBD, were tested to improve the degradation of TX‐100 and the mineralization efficiency in the DBD reactor. Both catalytic systems exhibited significant improvements in degradation efficiency, especially in the beginning of the treatment: the efficiency increased from 23 to 88 and 50%, for 5 mg L−1 Fe2+/DBD and 10 mmol L−1 H2O2/DBD, respectively. The mineralization efficiency of TX‐100 in the non‐catalytic DBD treatment was very low (1%), but with addition of catalysts, the mineralization efficiency was drastically improved, with H2O2/DBD at 4–34% (depending on the H2O2 concentration) and Fe2+/DBD at 2–21% (depending on the Fe2+ concentration). Degradation products of TX‐100 in non‐catalytic and two catalytic systems were identified using UHPLC‐Orbitrap‐MS. Based on the degradation products that were identified, a simple mechanistic scheme was proposed. MS analysis revealed that degradation of TX‐100 in the DBD reactor occurred by shortening the ethoxy chain. In the presence of catalysts, there are additional reactions of cleavage of the alkyl chain followed by formation of polyethoxylated phenol (H2O2/DBD) and addition of OH• radicals onto the aromatic ring (Fe2+/DBD). The final degradation products did not cause any significant toxic effects to Vibrio fischeri or Artemia salina.

Highly efficient degradation of PFAS and other surfactants in water with atmospheric RAdial plasma (RAP) discharge

“…There is only limited data on the degradation of Triton X-100 using atmospheric plasma in the literature. Aonyas et al, (2016) have reported the efficient degradation of Triton X-100 (at 100 mg/L initial concentration) in a falling film DBD reactor operating at an input power of 180 W. Their estimated G50 and EE/O values of 1167 mg/kWh and 75 kWh/m 3 , respectively (Aonyas et al, 2016) are however not as efficient as those found in the present study despite the fact that we used a 4-fold lower Triton X-100 initial concentration than theirs. Triton surfactants of different chain length, namely Triton X-45 (n = 4.5) and Triton X-405 (n = 35), were investigated in another study using miniaturized atmospheric pressure glow discharges generated in contact with small sized flowing liquid cathode systems (Jamróz et al, 2014).…”

Degradation of nicotine in water solutions using a water falling film DBD plasma reactor: direct and indirect treatment

“…salina organisms are mostly used for toxicity tests of extremely toxic substances, for example, drugs used as cytostatics [49]. This toxicological test has been applied to the assessment of the ecotoxicological status of non-thermal plasma treated water polluted by reactive textile dyes [16,50], herbicides [32,51], surfactants [38,52], 4-chlorophenol [48], and ibuprofen [53]. In the present study, the A. salina toxicity test was performed for untreated nicotine solutions and for nicotine solutions treated with different DBD systems.…”

“…The addition of Fe 2+ was used to increase the oxidation power of the plasma, since Fe 2+ will participate in the reaction with generated H 2 O 2 [36]. This reaction is also known as the Fenton reaction in which • OH is generated by the following equation (3) [37][38][39]:…”

Application of Hierarchical Nanostructured WO3 and Fe2O3 Composites for Photodegradation of Surfactants in Water Samples

“…In other words, the application of potential to the photoactive layers allows for the irradiation time to be significantly reduced in the presence of hierarchical photoactive materials composed of tungsten oxide and hematite. It is noteworthy that the proposed hierarchical photoactive system exhibited higher photodegradation efficiency and lower decomposition time (after 30 min under a bias voltage) in comparison with that of the other reported systems [62][63][64]. For instance, the mineralization rate of Triton TM X-114 reached up to 26% using TiO2 under UV irradiation after 120 min, but with an additional oxidizing reagent (hydrogen peroxide), the degradation rate achieved 67% after 120 min [63].…”