Removal of compounds used as plasticizers and herbicides from water by means of gamma irradiation

Gamma radiation has been used to induce the degradation of compounds used as plasticizers and herbicides such as phthalic acid (PA), bisphenol A (BPA), diphenolic acid (DPA), 2,4-dichlorophenoxy-acetic acid (2,4-D), and 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) in aqueous solution, determining the dose constants, removal percentages, and radiation-chemical yields. The reaction rate constants of hydroxyl radical (HO), hydrated electron (eaq(-)) and hydrogen atom (H) with these pollutants were also obtained by means of competition kinetics, using 3-aminopyridine and atrazine as reference compounds. The results indicated that the elimination of these pollutants with gamma radiation mainly follows the oxidative pathway through reaction with HO radicals. The degradation by-products from the five pollutants were determined, detecting that the hydroxylation of the corresponding parent compounds was the main chemical process in the degradation of the pollutants. Moreover, a high decrease in the chemical oxygen demand has been observed for all pollutants. As expected, the degradation by-products generated by the irradiation of PA, BPA and DPA showed a lower toxicity than the parent compounds, however, in the case of 2,4-D and MCPA irradiation, interestingly, their by-products were more toxic than the corresponding original compounds.