Application of quantum chemical calculation in defining peaks in uv-vis spectra of oxidative tartrazine degradation

Degradation of tartrazine in presence of cobalt activated Oxone® (potassium peroxymonosulfate) was investigated. Aluminium pillared clay acted as a support for catalytically active Co2+. Oxone® was a precursor of SO4˙ˉ radical anions. Along with decolorization of tartrazine solution, the degradation of tartrazine and formation of oxidation products was monitored using UV-Vis spectroscopy. Quantum chemical calculations were performed in order to predict UV-Vis spectra. Different models were tested, and the results of calculation have shown that the combination of TPSS-D3 method and aug-cc-pVDZ basis set is quite satisfactory level of theory. The experimentally obtained peaks that arose during degradation were identified using this method.