Photocatalytic degradation of pesticide pyridaben. 3. In surfactant/TiO2 aqueous dispersions

The effective TiO2 photocatalytic degradation of pyridaben in an acetronitrile/water dispersion has been investigated in previous work, but could not be achieved in the case of real waters. In this paper, photocatalytic degradation of pyridaben on TiO2 particles under UV light (lambda> 360 nm) illumination in surfactant CTAB (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) aqueous dispersions was studied. 1H NMR was used to determine quantitative information about the adsorption mode of pyridaben in CTAB micelles. The results showed that the upfield 1H shifts were largest for long chain protons of CTAB, indicating that the hydrophobic aromatic rings were primarily located in this region. Adsorption models on TiO2 surface were thus proposed. The reaction rates decreased with the increase of pH value, which can be attributed to the surface charge variations of pyridaben adsorbed onto TiO2 particles. The adsorption isotherms at different pH values confirmed that preadsorption on the surface of TiO2 particles was prerequisite for efficient degradation. Furthermore, an oxidation reagent such as H2O2 was added to the photocatalytic system, which may act as an alternative electron acceptor and result in a notably enhanced rate of pollutant destruction. On the basis of intermediates identified by GC/MS, a degradation pathway was proposed.