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Combining pre-oxidation with activated carbon adsorption was explored as an ideal approach for removing iodine from water source to eliminate the formation of Iodinated trihalomethanes (I-THMs). Compared with permanganate and monochloramine, chlorine is more suitable as pre-oxidant to obtain higher active iodine species (HOI/I

The degradation rates and kinetics of one commonly used iodinated contrast medium, iohexol, were investigated and compared during ultraviolet (UV) photolysis, UV/H2O2 and UV/ S 2 O 8 2 − advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Results indicate that the iohexol degradation rate increased in the order of UV/H2O2 S 2 O 8 2 − and followed pseudo-first-order kinetics. Increasing persulfate concentration significantly increased iohexol degradation rate, whereas increasing H2O2 concentration caused reverse effect. Radical scavenging test results show that UV photolysis, OH and radicals all contributed to iohexol degradation during UV/ S 2 O 8 2 − , but OH was the main contributor during UV/H2O2 and was consumed by excess H2O2. The kinetic models of iohexol degradation by both AOPs were developed, and the reaction rate constants with OH and were calculated as 5.73 (±0.02) × 108 and 3.91 (±0.01) × 1010 M−1 s−1, respectively. Iohexol degradation rate remained stable at pH 5–9 during UV irradiation and UV/H2O2, but gradually decreased at pH 5–7 and remained stable at pH 7–9 during UV/ S 2 O 8 2 − . The presence of anions displayed inhibitory effects on iohexol degradation during UV/ S 2 O 8 2 − in the order of Cl − > HCO 3 − ≫ S O 4 2 − . UV/ S 2 O 8 2 − AOP exhibited high degradation efficiency and stability on the basis of UV irradiation, which can be applied as a promising degradation method for iohexol. UV/ S 2 O 8 2 − AOP can effectively mineralize iohexol to CO2 but promoted the generation of toxic iodoform (CHI3), and the subsequent chlorination had the potential to reduce the content of disinfection by-products; therefore, further evaluation of possible environmental hazards is warranted.

Organic chloramines (OCs) have become one of the research focuses in the field of drinking water treatment due to its limited oxidation and sterilization ability as well as potential cytotoxicity and genetic toxicity to the public. Among widespread OCs, produced by chlorinating cytosine are a typical one exists during chlorine disinfection. OCs degradation during UV, chlorination and UV/chlorine processes were systematically investigated. UV irradiation at 254 nm could effectively degrade OCs by 96.6% after 60 min, mainly because N-Cl bond had significant UV absorption at 250-280 nm leading to the generation of Cl• and HO•. Direct chlorination had poor removal of OCs with the OCs concentration increased first and then decreased as time went by. On the other hand, the removal of OCs during UV/chlorination was much higher than that during chlorination, but was worse than that during UV alone. pH had a minor effect on OCs decomposition via UV irradiation, whereas the effect was pronounced in the chlorination and UV chlorine processes. UV wavelength can affect the degradation of OCs with efficiency decreased in the order of UV 254 UV 265 UV 275. The total yields of disinfection by-products (DBPs) during the degradation of OCs followed UV/chlorine UV chlorination. CH and DCAA were the two dominant types of DBPs among detected 7 DBPs. DBPs yield followed the order of UV254 UV265 UV275 at pH 6.0 and 7.0. After UV 265 irradiation, DBPs yield slightly decreased by 2.4%, 3.0% and 6.6% with the pH increased from 6.0 to 9.0. The results can provide theoretical basis for effective control of OCs in drinking water.

Pyrimidine and purine bases (adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine) are important precursors of organic chloramines (OC) and disinfection by-products (DBPs) during chlor(am)ination. In this study, OC and DBP formation derived from pyrimidine and purine bases during chlor(am)ination, post-chlor(am)ination after pretreated by UV alone and UV/chlorination were systematically investigated with ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs, 265 and 275 nm) and low pressure mercury lamp (LPUV, 254 nm). The results revealed that higher OC formation was observed during chlorination than that during chloramination of pyrimidine and purine bases. The degradation of pyrimidine and purine bases followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics. Both solution pH and UV wavelength played vital influence on the degradation of pyrimidine and purine bases. In terms of fluence-based rate constants (kobs), the degradation rates of pyrimidine and purine bases decreased in the order of 275 nm > 265 nm > 254 nm in alkaline conditions. The synergistic effects of kobs, chlorine, kobs, •OH and kobs, RCS contributed to the differences of pyrimidine and purine bases degradation at different pH values and UV wavelengths. A vital suppression of OC formation was observed during post-chlorination after pretreated by 275 nm UV-LED/chlorination. In addition, compared with LPUV (254 nm), less DBP formation was observed at UV-LED (275 nm), especially during the UV/chlorine process. The phenomena obtained in this study indicated that 275 nm UV-LED combined with chlorine could be a preferred method to promote pyrimidine and purine bases degradation and control OC and DBP formation in practical water treatment.

Boron nitride Nanosheets (BNNSs) was fabricated with a method of heating the mixture of boric acid and urea in N2 atmosphere and used to remove estrone (E1) from water. The obtained BNNSs exhibited a higher surface area of 896 m2/g, a large pore volume of 0.76 cm3/g, and only few layers (0.398 nm) with the boric acid and urea ratio of 1:80. The layer number of BNNSs decreased from 15 to 4 with the mole ratio of boric acid and urea decreasing from 1:20 to 1:80, which was identified by SEM, TEM, AFM and BET measurements. More importantly, BNNSs presented an outstanding adsorption performance for estrone with the adsorption capacity of 249.15 mg E1/g BNNSs. The adsorption process could be best fitted by pseudo second-order kinetic model and the equilibrium data at different temperatures were well fitted by Langmuir isotherm model. The thermodynamics analysis revealed that E1 adsorption on BNNSs was spontaneous (ΔG = −29.33 kJ mol−1), enthalpy-retarded (ΔH = 29.75 kJ mol−1), entropy-driven (ΔS = 198.26 J mol−1 K−1), and mostly chemical adsorption. The adsorption rates of E1 in water were sharply enhanced with thinner BNNSs as absorbents and removal efficiency by BN-60 regenerated after 6 times was above 95%, it was shown that the surface areas, mesopores and remarkable structure played important roles in the adsorption process. The firmness of E1 onto BNNSs and the stability of adsorption efficiency made BNNSs as a potential absorbent for efficient removal of E1 from wastewater.

Iopamidol is a commonly used iodinated X-ray contrast media in medical field, and its residue in water can react with disinfectants to form highly toxic iodinated disinfection by-products (I-DBPs). This study investigated the degradation of iopamidol and formation of DBPs, especially iodinated trihalomethanes (I-THMs), during ferrate (Fe(VI)) pre-oxidation and subsequent chlor(am)ination under raw water background. It was found that iopamidol degradation efficiency in raw water by Fe(VI) at pH 9 could reach about 80%, which was much higher than that at pH 5 and pH 7 (both about 25%). With Fe(VI) dose increasing, iopamidol removal efficiency increased obviously. During the iopamidol degradation by Fe(VI), IO3− was the dominant product among all the iodine species. After pre-treated by Fe(VI), yields of THM4 and I-THMs can be reduced in subsequent chlor(am)ination. Besides, pH was a crucial factor for Fe(VI) pre-oxidition controlling DBPs. With the pH increasing from 5 to 9, the yield of THM4 kept increasing in subsequent chlorination but showed the highest amount at pH 6 in subsequent chloramination. The yield of I-THMs increased first and then decreased with the increase of pH in both subsequent chlorination and chloramination. I-THM concentrations in chlorinated samples were lower than chloraminated ones under acidic conditions but became higher under neutral and alkaline conditions. The total CTI of THMs during Fe(VI)-chloramination was higher than that during Fe(VI)-chlorination under neutral condition, but sharply decreased under alkaline conditions. In summary, Fe(VI)-chloramination subsequent treatment under alkaline conditions should be an effective method for iopamidol removal and DBP control.

Prometryn is a herbicide that is widely used and frequently detected in aqueous environment and soil. Prometryn is chemically stable, biologically toxic, and easily to accumulate in living bodies, which can cause accumulate in the environment and acute and chronic toxicity to living creatures. In this study, factors affecting the degradation kinetics of prometryn chlorination were studied, including solution pH, bromide and ammonium concentrations, and temperature. Prometryn reacted quickly with aqueous chlorine following the pseudo-first-order kinetics. The maximum pseudo-first-order rate constant (kapp) appeared at pH 5 with the observed rate constant (kobs) as 190. 08 h−1; the minimum value of kapp reached at pH 9 with kobs as 5.26 h−1. The presence of Br− and increase of temperature both accelerated the degradation rate of prometryn during chlorination. The activation energy was calculated as 31.80 kJ/mol. Meanwhile 6 disinfection by-products (DBPs) were detected, namely: chloroform (CF), trichloroacetonitrile (TCAN), dichloroacetonitrile (DCAN), dichloroacetone, trichloronitromethane (TCNM), and trichloroacetone. Solution pH significantly affected the formation and distribution of DBPs. CF was the most formed carbonated DBP (C-DBP) with the maximum of 217.9 μg/L at pH 8, and its formation was significantly higher in alkaline conditions. For nitrogenated DBPs (N-DBPs), the yields of DCAN and TCAN were significantly higher in acidic conditions, while the maximum of TCNM achieved in neutral conditions. Because the toxicity of N-DBPs is higher than that of C-DBPs, the pH should be controlled in neutral or slight alkaline conditions during prometryn chlorination to effectively control DBP formation and reduce the related toxicity.

The degradation rates and kinetics of one commonly used iodinated contrast medium, iohexol, were investigated and compared during ultraviolet (UV) photolysis, UV/H

The formation and control of haloacetamides (HAcAms) in drinking water have raised high attention due to their high genotoxicity and cytotoxicity, especially the most cytotoxic one, diiodoacetamide (DIAcAm). In this study, the degradation of DIAcAm by UV/chlorination was investigated in terms of degradation kinetics, efficiency, influencing factors, oxidation products and toxicity evaluation. Results revealed that the degradation of DIAcAm by UV/chlorine process followed pseudo-first-order kinetics, and the rate constant between DIAcAm and OH radicals was determined as 2.8 × 109 M−1 s−1. The contribution of Cl to DIAcAm degradation by UV/chlorine oxidation was negligible. Increasing chlorine dosage and decreasing pH significantly promoted the DIAcAm degradation during UV/chlorine oxidation, but the presence of bicarbonate (HCO3−) and natural organic matter (NOM) inhibited it. The mass balance analysis of iodine species was also evaluated during UV/chlorine oxidation of DIAcAm. In this process, with DIAcAm decreasing from 16.0 to 0.8 μM-I in 20 min, IO3−, I− and HOI/I2 increased from 0 to 6.3, 6.1 and 0.5 μM-I, respectively. The increase of CHO cell viability during DIAcAm degradation indicated that the toxicity of DIAcAm could be decreased by chlorination, UV irradiation and UV/chlorine oxidation treatments, in which UV/chlorine oxidation was more effective on toxicity reduction than chlorination and UV irradiation alone.

Chlortoluron chlorination is studied in the pH range of 3–10 at 25 ± 1 °C. The chlorination kinetics can be well described by a second-order kinetics model, first-order in chlorine and first-order in chlortoluron. The apparent rate constants were determined and found to be minimum at pH 6, maximum at pH 3 and medium at alkaline conditions. The rate constant of each predominant elementary reactions (i.e., the acid-catalyzed reaction of chlortoluron with HOCl, the reaction of chlortoluron with HOCl and the reaction of chlortoluron with OCl − ) was calculated as 3.12 (± 0.10) × 10 7 M −2 h −1 , 3.11 (±0.39) × 10 2 M −1 h −1 and 3.06 (±0.47) × 10 3 M −1 h −1 , respectively. The main chlortoluron chlorination by-products were identified by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) with purge-and-trap pretreatment, ultra-performance liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization-MS and GC-electron capture detector. Six volatile disinfection by-products were identified including chloroform (CF), dichloroacetonitrile, 1,1-dichloropropanone, 1,1,1-trichloropropanone, dichloronitromethane and trichloronitromethane. Degradation pathways of chlortoluron chlorination were then proposed. High concentrations of CF were generated during chlortoluron chlorination, with maximum CF yield at circumneutral pH range in solution.

The kinetics of chlorination of dinoseb and the corresponding formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs) were studied between pH 4 and 9 at room temperature (25 ± 1 °C). The reactivity shows a minimum at pH 9, a maximum at pH 4 and a medium at neutral conditions. pH profile of the apparent second-order rate constant of the reaction of dinoseb with chlorine was modeled considering the elementary reactions of HOCl with dinoseb species and an acid-catalyzed reaction. The predominant reactions at near neutral pH were the reactions of HOCl with the two species of dinoseb. The rate constants of 2.0 (±0.8) × 104 M−2 s−1, 3.3 (±0.6) and 0.5 (±0.1) M−1 s−1 were determined for the acid-catalyzed reaction, HOCl reacted with dinoseb and dinoseb−, respectively. The main degradation by-products of the dinoseb formed during chlorination have been separated and identified by GC–MS with liquid–liquid extraction sample pretreatment. Six volatile and semi-volatile DBPs were identified in the chlorination products, including chloroform (CF), monochloroacetone, chloropicrin (TCNM), 1,1-dichloro-2-methy-butane, 1,2-dichloro-2-methy-butane, 1-chloro-3-methy-pentanone. A proposed degradation pathway of dinoseb during chlorination was then given. TCNM and CF formation potential during chlorination of dinoseb reached as high as 0.077 and 0.097 μM μM−1 dinoseb under the traditional condition (pH = 7 and Cl2/C = 2). Their yields varied with Cl2/C, pH and time. The maximum yields of TCNM appeared at molar ratio as Cl2/C = 1 and pH 3, while the maximum of CF appeared at molar ratio as Cl2/C = 4 and pH 7. [TCNM]/[CF] decreased with reaction time and increased solution pH.