Rapid and quantitative evaluation of the effect of process variables on the kinetics of photocatalytic degradation of phenol using experimental design techniques and parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis.

A 2(3) factorial design has been used to analyze the effect of pH, the nature of the catalyst, and the concentration of the substrate on the rate constant of the photodegradation reaction of phenol. The main effects of the considered variables and their interaction are discussed. The significance of the effects has been corroborated using an ANOVA test. The values of phenol concentrations, used to calculate the rate constant, and the concentrations of intermediates were obtained by applying parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis to the data obtained from monitoring the process by means of excitation-emission fluorescence (EEM). The proposed methodology, which combines experimental design and multivariate techniques, is a rapid alternative for study of chemical kinetics.