Benzotriazoles are a group of emerging organic pollutants. Due to their anticorrosive properties, the polar ones are used as additives in various industrial liquids, as well as in dishwashing detergents that we use in our households. Their main source of entry into the environment is wastewater from wastewater treatment plants, where they are insufficiently removed. They are also relatively stable in the environment and in the end, due to their water solubility, travel to our faucets. In the environment, they are found in concentrations ranging from ng/L to μg/L. They are toxic for aquatic organisms but are also suspected human carcinogens. Development of tertiary methods for their removal is hence of great importance. One of the methods of wastewater treatment is electrooxidation (EO) which is, in contrast to the present study, mainly tested in combination with other techniques.
I monitored the degradation of 1H-benzotriazole (BTA) in synthetic wastewater samples with EO. An important part of analysis is sample preparation by solid-phase extraction (SPE) which I also used within my work. Hence, I also researched the influence of different parameters on BTA recovery via SPE. pH value of samples did not directly influence the recoveries, however, differences among recoveries at different pH values arose when supporting electrolytes were present. We tested four different electrolytes: NaCl, H2SO4, Na2SO4 and Na2CO3. The type of electrolyte had a great influence on SPE recoveries which ranged from 59% with Na2SO4 to 86% with Na2CO3. I also found that SPE recoveries lowered notably at BTA concentrations higher than 20 mg/L.
During BTA degradation monitoring, I observed the influence of anodic material, supporting electrolyte and current density on EO and compared the rate of degradation at high and low BTA concentrations. The rate of degradation was higher at higher current densities and lower BTA concentrations. Among anodic materials we tested mixed metal oxide (MMO) and boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes and found that the rate of degradation was higher and accompanied by fewer transformation products at BDD electrode. Degradations with all tested electrolytes gave pseudo-first order kinetics. Transformation products were monitored by LC-MS/MS and were noticed mainly with the use of NaCl, which caused the emergence of toxic chlorinated organic compounds, and with the use of H2SO4, which caused the emergence of various hydroxylated benzotriazoles. The degradation rate was the highest when H2SO4 was used – after 2.5 h, 97% BTA was degraded from approximately 1 mM initial concentration.
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