Photocatalysis of p-chlorobenzoic acid in aqueous solution under irradiation of 254 nm and 185 nm UV light

The photolytic and photocatalytic degradation of p-chlorobenzoic acid (p-CBA) in aqueous solution were investigated using two kinds of low-pressure mercury lamps: one emitted at 254 nm and the other emitted at 254 nm and 185 nm. Both the photolytic and photocatalytic degradations of p-CBA followed pseudo first-order reaction rate form. The rate constants decreased with increase of initial concentration in VUV and TiO2/VUV. The TiO2/VUV was the most efficient process, in which rate constants was 3.0–6.5 times as that in TiO2/UV depending on the initial concentration. The gas bubbling efficiently improved the mass transfer and the kind of bubbling gas had evident influence on the reaction rate except in UV photolysis. TOC reduction rate was greatly reduced in VUV and TiO2/VUV processes when bubbled with nitrogen gas, it was no more than one third of that when bubbled with oxygen, however, the degradation rate of p-CBA was not affected by bubbled nitrogen so greatly.