Oxidative Degradation of Bisphenol A (BPA) by UV/H2O2 Process

The photochemical degradation of Bisphenol A(BPA) in UV/H₂O₂ advanced oxidation process was studied in this paper. The combined UV/H₂O₂ process could effectively degraded BPA. Results show that BPA degradation rate was affected by H₂O₂ concentration, intensity of UV radiation, initial BPA concentration, and solution pH. The first order rate constant(k) increased with H₂O₂ concentration from 5 to 20mg/L and decreased when H₂O₂ concentration exceeded 50mg/L. Increasing UV radiation intensity significantly increased the degradation rate of BPA. The degradation rate of BPA decreased with increasing BPA concentration. The value of k increased with increasing pH in the range of pH 2.1-4.5, but decreased at higher solution pH. NO₃^-, Cl^-, HCO₃^- have inhibitory action on BPA photodegradation; their inhibitory action order is HCO₃^- > NO₃^- > Cl^- when anions concentrations were 5mmol/L.