Accelerated degradation of sulfamethazine in water by VUV/UV photo-Fenton process: Impact of sulfamethazine concentration on reaction mechanism

The degradation of sulfamethazine (SMN) by VUV/UV photo-Fenton (VPF) process was investigated with a mini-fluidic VUV/UV photoreaction system. Compared with the conventional UV photo-Fenton process, the VPF process significantly enhanced the degradation and mineralization of SMN, because the VUV irradiation photolyzed H2O and accelerated the redox cycle of Fe3+/Fe2+ to generate more reactive oxygen species (ROS). Initial pH and concentrations of SMN, H2O2, Fe3+, inorganic anions (NO3−, HCO3−, and Cl−), and humic acid all considerably impacted SMN degradation in the VPF process. In particular, the initial SMN concentration significantly affected the absorption distributions of UV and VUV photons in the reaction solution, thus inducing a different reaction mechanism. At a lower SMN concentration (1.8 μM), most of UV and VUV photons were absorbed by Fe3+ and H2O, respectively, so indirect oxidation by ROS mainly accounted for SMN degradation. However, at a higher SMN concentration (90 μM), 89.2% of UV photons and 59.0% of VUV photons were absorbed by SMN, so direct photolysis also played an important role. In addition, HO and HO2 were identified as the main ROS in the VPF process. This study demonstrates that the VPF process can effectively remove organic micropollutants from water.