An official website of the European Union How do you know?      
European Commission logo
JRC Publications Repository Menu

Role of Humic Acids in the TiO2 Photocatalyzed Degradation of Tetrachloroethene in Water.

cover
The effect of humic acids on the TlO2-mediated photocatalytic degradation of tetrachloro ethene (PCE) was kinetically investigated at different pH and initial substrate concentrations. The process occurs through two parallel paths: a major oxidative route leading to mineralization and a reductive route leading to the formation dichloroacetic acid (DCAA), also undergoing photodegradation. The rate of PCE decomposition was found to decrease in the presence of humic acids adsorbed on the semiconductor surface, while the concentration of the intermediate dichloroacetic acid increased. this is a consequence of the scavening action of humic acids toward photoproduced surface oxidant species, which makes conduction band electrons more easily avaliable for interface reactions. Kinetic studies on the effect of humic acids in the TiO2-mediated photodegradation of dichloroacetic acid showed that the progressively greater accumulation of this highly toxic intermediate, observed with increasing humic acids content, was a consequence of both an increase in the rate of its production from PCE and a decrease in the rate of its oxidative photodegradation.
1998-09-21
JRC16839
Language Citation
NameCountryCityType
Datasets
IDTitlePublic URL
Dataset collections
IDAcronymTitlePublic URL
Scripts / source codes
DescriptionPublic URL
Additional supporting files
File nameDescriptionFile type 
Show metadata record  Copy citation url to clipboard  Download BibTeX
Items published in the JRC Publications Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Additional information: https://ec.europa.eu/info/legal-notice_en#copyright-notice