Role of oxygen in the degradation of atrazine by UV/Fe(III) process

In this study, the role of oxygen in the regeneration of Fe(III) during the degradation of atrazine in UV/Fe(III) process was studied. The degradations of atrazine in UV/Fe(III) and UV-photolysis processes in the presence and absence of oxygen were compared. The results showed that the degradations of atrazine in these processes followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics well. The process exhibiting the highest rate constant (k) was UV/Fe(III)/air process, because k-value for UV/Fe(III)/air process was about 1.47, 2.23 and 2.56 times of those for UV/Fe(III)/N₂, UV/air and UV/N₂ processes, respectively. The degradation of atrazine was enhanced by oxygen in UV/Fe(III) process and the enhancement was more remarkable at higher initial concentrations of Fe(III). The investigation into the changes of Fe(III) concentrations demonstrated that the presence of oxygen led to the regeneration of Fe(III), which resulted in the enhancement of atrazine degradation. With air bubbling, the ferric ions were 25% more than those with N₂ bubbling. The experimental data showed the regeneration of Fe(III) required the excited organic molecules and oxygen and on the basis of these results, the regeneration mechanism of Fe(III) was proposed. It was also found that due to the oxidation of Fe(II), the degradation of atrazine in UV/Fe(II)/air process was effective at a low Fe(II) concentration of 7 mg/L, similar to that in UV/Fe(III)/air process. This study makes clear the role of oxygen in the regeneration of Fe(III), and thus it provides a guide to reduce the input of Fe(III) and is helpful to the application of UV/Fe(III) process in practice.