Enhanced photo-degradation of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)Kumar, Praveen (Avtor) Verma, Shilpi (Avtor) Kaur, Ramanpreet (Avtor) Papac, Josipa (Avtor) Kušić, Hrvoje (Avtor) Lavrenčič Štangar, Urška (Avtor) N-methyl-2-pyrrolidonekineticsartificial neural network modellingradical quenchingartificial neural networkUVPMSThis study investigates the degradation of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) by UV-C and UV-C/PMS-treatment processes. The degradation of NMP was less than 2% by UV-C photolysis. To enhance the degradation, PMS was used as a source of sulphate (SO$_4$$^•$$^−$) and hydroxyl (HO$^•$) radicals in the UV-C photolysis treatment system. The operational parameters such as initial pH and concentration of NMP and PMS and water matrix elements were studied to understand their effects on degradation. At pH = 6.3, λ = 260 nm, initial concentration of NMP = 10 mg/L, PMS = 300 mg/L and carbonate ion = 150 mg/L, the degradation of NMP was found to be 97.5%, along with 26.86% of TOC removal. The bicarbonate ions, nitrate ions, and chloride ions showed the inhibitory effect on the degradation of NMP. The NMP degradation was governed by pseudo first order kinetics. SO$_4$$^•$$^−$ was found to be the dominating degradation species through the radical quenching studies. The intermediates formed during the degradation were identified through LC-MS analysis, and a degradation pathway was proposed. The experimental data was successfully validated through the application of the developed ANN model. The R$^2$ between expected and experimental outcomes was 0.97. The developed ANN model was successful in predicting the degradation of NMP in the given reaction conditions with the prediction accuracy of 90.91% and RMSE of 3.54.20222022-06-24 08:47:02Članek v reviji137653sl