Phorate degradation by TiO2 photocatalysis: Parameter and reaction pathway investigations

The photocatalytic degradation of phorate in aqueous suspensions was examined with the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a photocatalyst. About 99% of phorate was degraded after UV irradiation for 60 min. The photodegradation of phorate followed pseudo-first-order kinetics and parameters such as pH of the system, TiO2 dosage, and presence of anions were found to influence the reaction rate. To obtain a better understanding of the mechanistic details of this TiO2-assisted photodegradation of phorate with UV irradiation, the intermediates of the processes were separated, identified, and characterized by the solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) techniques. The probable photodegradation pathways were proposed and discussed. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that reports the degradation pathways of phorate. The electrical energy consumption per order of magnitude for photocatalytic degradation of phorate was also calculated and showed that a moderated efficiency (EEO = 96 kWh/(m3 order)) was obtained in TiO2/UV process.