DEGRADATION OF CHLOROETHANES IN DILUTE AQUEOUS-SOLUTION BY H2O2 UV/

The destruction of organic pollutants in water can be achieved by the combination of oxidants or of oxidants with u.v. radiation (O-3/H2O2; H2O2/u.v.; O-3/u.v.). The efficiency of these advanced oxidation proce sses is accounted for by the generation of very reactive free radicals such as hydroxyl radicals. In this paper, experimental data are prese nted to examine the effect of physico-chemical parameters on the effic iency of the H2O2/u.v. process for the degradation of chloroethanes in dilute aqueous solution and to test a kinetic model for this oxidatio n process. The model is based on known reactions of OH radicals in wat er and on kinetic results obtained in a previous work for the photodec omposition of hydrogen peroxide (Nicole et al., 1990).