Photochemical Decomposition of Environmentally Persistent Perfluorooctanoic Acid in Water

The photo-degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in aqueous solution was preliminarily studied in this paper in order to develop an effective technique against the pollution of PFOA. Reaction kinetics and factors affecting the degradation were investigated. The results showed that PFOA could be degraded effectively into fluorine ion through UV light irradiation, which was the first example of C-F bond cleavage in PFOA induced by UV light; Ferric ion could promote the photo-degradation efficiency of PFOA in aqueous solutions at pH value 4.0, while adding TiO₂ could not increase this photochemical reaction under our experimental condition; The dynamics analysis showed that photodecomposition of PFOA followed a pseudo-zero order reaction. The study indicated that photochemical decomposition was a highly promising technology for the removal of PFOA from wastewater.