Photocatalytic abatement of emerging pollutants in pure water and wastewater effluent by TiO2 and Ce-ZnO: degradation kinetics and assessment of transformation products

Abstract

Here, the performances of two different catalysts, Ce-ZnO and TiO₂ synthetized in our laboratories, were compared with the commercial TiO₂-P25 for degradation of a mixture of seven emerging pollutants under UV irradiation. The investigation included monitoring pollutants abatement in Milli-Q water and in wastewater effluent and identifying their transformation products by HPLC-HRMS. Structural characterization of intermediates supported by data available from literature allowed elucidation of the transformation pathways occurring in the presence of all investigated catalysts in the wastewater effluent. Preliminary results showed a good removal efficacy for almost all examined contaminants, even in real water matrix (i.e. wastewater effluent). The type of matrix and catalyst affects the number and/or the abundance of transformation products, which suggests differences in their transformation routes.