Degradación fotocatalítica de Aroclor 1254 utilizando dióxido de titanio irradiado con haz de electrones acelerados

Biphenyl polychlorides (PCB’s) are organic compounds that were used in capacitors and electrical transformers due to their insulating properties and high chemical stability. By banning the manufacture and use of PCBs, a lot of this electrical equipment became obsolete and huge volumes of dielectric oil with PCBs were stored as hazardous waste pending an alternative for their treatment. In this work, the phase transfer of PCB’s (Aroclor 1254) from the dielectric oil to an aqueous phase, for its subsequent photocatalytic degradation is proposed. Two transfer agents were probed, Polyethylene Glycol 400 and Triton X-100. The catalytic process was carried out with no irradiated TiO2 (0 kGy) and ebeam irradiated TiO2 with 20 and 60 kGy; UV-vis was used as a source of energy during photodegradation. The degradation was evaluated by gas chromatography and the mineralization was verified by Total Organic Carbon (COT). The highest phase transfer efficiency was achieved with the Triton X-100, so this agent was used in subsequent studies. The best results of degradation and mineralization of Aroclor 1254, was reached with the TiO2 irradiated at 20 kGy, these were 98.36 % and 58.92 % respectively, after 240 min of photo-oxidation. In this way this technology becomes a viable alternative to solve the problem of contamination by PCBs.