Bisphenols have recently become quite widespread organic pollutants in the environment. This is, among other things, the result of the excessive use of plastic in the past decades. The use of bisphenol A (BPA) is being restricted due to its toxicity and the dangers of prolonged exposure. Nevertheless, the concentrations detected in the environment are still high. In addition, high concentrations of structural analogues of BPA have also been detected in the environment. Many techniques have already been developed for the removal of pollutants in water. As part of my master's thesis, I tested the operation of a coupled photocatalysis system with cavitation for the degradation of BPA and its four structural analogues Bisphenol-AF (BPAF), Bisphenol-F (BPF), Bisphenol-S (BPS) and Tetramethyl bisphenol-F (TMBPF). Since we expected that the degradation process would also be affected by the water sample, the experiments were performed in drinking and treated wastewater taken at the outlet of the Domžale wastewater treatment plant. It is important to analyze the photocatalyst before and after use. The photocatalyst is suitable for long-term use only if it does not change during operation. I confirmed this with several methods such as X-ray powder diffraction, nitrogen physisorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and others listed in this work. It has been shown that the degradation of bisphenols takes place much more easily in drinking water than in treated wastewater. The reason is probably the amount of other organic pollutants that are present in the water in addition to bisphenols. I also found that by increasing the operating time of photocatalysis coupled with cavitation, a larger amount of bisphenols could be removed from the water.
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