Removal of atrazine from water using an iron photo catalyst supported on activated carbon

Atrazine is a systemic triazine herbicide, which has been classified as an endocrine disrupting pesticide of hormones and the reproductive systems of humans. Moreover, atrazine was recently considered as a potential carcinogen by several reports. The aim of this work was to synthesize and to evaluate an iron catalyst supported on activated carbon to remove atrazine from water. Five different treatment schemas were evaluated: (1) adsorption with the photocatalyst’s support alone, (2) adsorption with the supported photocatalyst alone, (3) adsorption coupled to heterogeneous Fenton reaction, (4) adsorption coupled to heterogeneous advanced oxidation with UV light and (5) adsorption coupled to heterogeneous photo assisted Fenton reaction. The photocatalyst synthesized, via the incipient wet impregnation method, showed 1176 ± 24 m²/g of Langmuir area and 1.6 % wt/wt of iron content. After 120 min of reaction time, total removal efficiencies in the treatment schemas using the photocatalyst ranged from 70 % (mainly adsorption with the photocatalyst alone) to 96 % (Adsorption and heterogeneous photo assisted Fenton reaction). The heterogeneous photo assisted Fenton reaction was the fastest and most efficient treatment schema, with results better than that reported for similar materials. The adsorption data was fitted to a kinetic model of pseudo-second order and the results of advanced oxidation process were fitted to a kinetic model of fractional order.