Effects of Fe2O3, organic matter and carbonate on photocatalytic degradation of lindane in the sediment from the Liao River, China

Fourteen sediment samples with different content of Fe2O3 were collected from the lower reaches of the Liao River in China. The photodegradation of lindane on the surfaces of these sediments was investigated to observe the effects of Fe2O3 and other photoinducable substances, such as TiO2 and organic substances, on photodegradation of lindane. A partial least-squares (PLS) analysis model was developed to find out the statistical relationship between the photodegradation and the contents of these photoinducable substances. It was concluded from the PLS analysis that inorganic carbon and organic carbon have negative effects, whereas Fe2O3 and TiO2 accelerate the photodegradation of lindane in the sediment samples when 365 nm UV light was used as light source. In all cases of the experiments, the photodegradation of lindane in the sediment samples were fitted for pseudo-first-order kinetics.