A more environmentally sustainable process to remove a wide range of endocrine disrupting chemicals from water

Abstract

Mesoporous materials of the type MCM-41 were synthesized using rice husk as precursor of silica. The MCM-41 support was then modified with Fe by the wet impregnation method. The synthetized catalysts were used as heterogeneous catalysts, in the degradation of different endocrine disruptors in aqueous medium, as herbicides (atrazine), compounds derived from the plastic industry (bisphenol A) and the pharmaceutical industry (acetaminophen), applying the photo-Fenton heterogeneous reaction (Fe2+/H2O2/UV-Vis).Thus, a stable, effective and sustainable solid was obtained which, at pH close to neutral consumed low amounts of oxidant and provided an efficient catalytic process to degrade recalcitrant organic molecules. Consequently, the heterogeneous Fenton reaction presented in this work appears as a promising pre-treatment capable to improve the biodegradability of waste water from different industry