Photolysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in water

The decomposition of benzo[a]pyrene (BAP), chrysene (CHR) and fluorene (FLU) in an aqueous solution by means of photolysis has been studied. The influence of initial polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons’ (PAHs) concentration, pH of the reaction mixture, temperature, presence of oxygen and tert-butyl alcohol (t-BuOH) on the degradation rate has been observed. BAP and CHR are decomposed by a mechanism different than FLU. Quantum yields of the photolytic decomposition of BAP, CHR and FLU were determined and equal 0.014, 0.0031 and 0.0038, respectively.