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Photodegradation of benzene and phenanthrene in aqueous solution using pulsed ultraviolet light

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Published:
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope

Abstract

This study examined the comparative degradation of benzene and phenanthrene using a pulsed ultraviolet light (PUV) reactor. The concentration of free chlorine was determined for various NaCl concentrations (0-10 mM) and electrode distances (10, 20, and 40 cm) in order to investigate the effect of oxidation by free chlorine on degradation. It was observed that the presence of NaCl had a dual effect on benzene removal, while phenanthrene removal increased with decreasing NaCl concentration. Both benzene (0.065 min−1) and phenanthrene (0.24 min−1) pseudo first-order rate constants were highest with a NaCl concentration of 0.25 mM and an electrode distance of 10 cm. The degradation of phenanthrene was much higher than that of benzene due mainly to smaller Dewar’s reactivity values ranging from 1.80 to 2.18 at five different positions for phenanthrene compared to the one position of benzene (2.31), which suggests that phenanthrene is more easily attacked than benzene.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04763, Korea

    Hanuk Lee & Jae-Woo Park

  2. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Yeomin Yoon

  3. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Sciences, Korea Army Academy, Young-Cheon, 38900, Korea

    Namguk Her & Jonghun Han

  4. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Korea

    Jeill Oh

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  1. Hanuk Lee
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  2. Yeomin Yoon
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  3. Namguk Her
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  4. Jonghun Han
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  6. Jae-Woo Park
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Correspondence to Jae-Woo Park.

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Lee, H., Yoon, Y., Her, N. et al. Photodegradation of benzene and phenanthrene in aqueous solution using pulsed ultraviolet light. KSCE J Civ Eng 21, 1607–1613 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-1817-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-1817-2

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