posted on 2018-08-01, 00:00authored bySushant
P. Sahu, Mojtaba Qanbarzadeh, Mohamed Ateia, Hamed Torkzadeh, Amith S. Maroli, Ezra L. Cates
Water
treatment techniques for destructive removal of perfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS) have only recently begun to emerge in the research
literature, comprising unconventional advanced oxidation and reduction
methods. Photocatalytic degradation of PFAS has not been widely pursued,
which is a result of the limited ability of common semiconductor materials
to induce C–F bond cleavage in aqueous systems. Herein, degradation
of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) by bismuth phosphate photocatalysts
under ultraviolet irradiation has been investigated for the first
time, including the relatively well-known monoclinic BiPO4 wide band gap semiconductor, as well as a novel Bi3O(OH)(PO4)2 (BOHP) composition. Compared to BiPO4 and a β-Ga2O3 nanomaterial reference
catalyst, BOHP microparticles achieved dramatically faster PFOA degradation
and mineralization, despite both a smaller surface area and a lower
band gap energy. The rate constant for degradation of PFOA by BOHP
in a pure water solution was ∼15 times greater than those of
both BiPO4 and β-Ga2O3 (∼20–30
times greater when normalized for surface area) and was on the same
order of magnitude as that of phenol degradation by P25 TiO2 in the same photoreactor. The superior performance of BOHP was primarily
related to the surface charge and adsorption behavior of PFOA, in
combination with the favorable redox potentials of BOHP charge carriers.
The catalyst was further tested at low PFOA concentrations (i.e.,
microgram per liter range) in the presence of natural organic matter,
and rapid degradation of PFOA was also observed, indicating the potential
of BOHP to enable practical ex situ destructive treatment of PFAS-contaminated
groundwater.