Application of mercury discharge lamp without electrode for degradation of paracetamol

Abstract

Electroless mercury discharge lamp (Hg-EDL) was applied in photolytic and photocatalytic degradation studies, to evaluate the degradation potential of a solution of Paracetamol 10 mg L-1. The photodegradation (photolysis and photocatalysis) was conducted in a UV / MW reactor, with fixed microwave power (200W, pH ̴ 7) and different irradiation time (0.083 and 2.0 min.). After irradiation, the samples were analyzed by UV / Vis spectrophotometry for drug quantification. Removal of up to 70% in the photolytic assay with time of up to 2 min., while for the photocatalytic process (applying suspension of 1 g L-1 of the semiconductors) the results removal was of the order of 60%. First-order kinetics were applied, with a constant k = 0.602 min-1 and r2 = 0.993, demonstrating an adequate adjustment to the kinetics of order 1. Thus, the UV / MW reactor demonstrates high efficiency in the paracetamol degradation process, since high removal rate and high kinetic degradation value were obtained for the respective system. This photoreactor can be explored in degradation tests of other compounds, allowing the evaluation of its efficiency against the degradation of a greater variety of emerging contaminants.