Effect of inorganic, synthetic and naturally occurring chelating agents on Fe(II) mediated advanced oxidation of chlorophenols

This study examines the feasibility and application of Advanced Oxidation Technologies (AOTs) for the treatment of chlorophenols that are included in US EPA priority pollutant list. A novel class of sulfate/hydroxyl radical-based homogeneous AOTs (Fe(II)/PS, Fe(II)/PMS, Fe(II)/H₂O₂) was successfully tested for the degradation of series of chlorophenols (4-CP, 2,4-CP, 2,4,6-CP, 2,3,4,5-CP). The major objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of three representative chelating agents (citrate, ethylenediaminedisuccinate (EDDS), and pyrophosphate) on Fe(II)-mediated activation of three common peroxide (peroxymonosulfate (PMS), persulfate (PS), and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂)) at neutral pH conditions. Short term (4 h) and long term (7 days) experiments were conducted to evaluate the kinetics and longevity of different oxidative systems for 4-chlorophenol degradation. Results showed that each of the iron-chelating agent couple was superior in activating a particular oxidant and consequently for 4-CP degradation. In case of Fe(II)/PMS system, the inorganic chelating agent pyrophosphate showed effective activation of PMS whereas very fast dissociation of PMS was recorded in the case of EDDS without any apparent 4-CP degradation. In Fe(II)/H₂O₂ system, EDDS was proven to be the most effective whereas pyrophosphate showed negligible activation of H₂O₂. Fe(II)/Citrate system showed moderate activation of all three oxidants. PMS was found to be the most universal oxidant, which was activated by all three iron-chelating agent systems and Fe(II)/Citrate was the most universal chelating agent system, which was able to activate all three oxidants to a certain extent.