[Performance of solar/S-doped TiO2 on the decomposition of bisphenol A]

Removal efficiency and influencing factors of bisphenol A by the combined process of solar irradiation and S-doped TiO2 were studied in detail, in which S-doped TiO2 photo-catalyst with high activity was prepared by acid catalyzed hydrolysis method using thiourea as sulfur source. Results showed that bisphenol A could be more effectively oxidized by the solar/S-doped TiO2 process than by solar/TiO2 process, whose removal effect were 79% and 49% after 30 min's irradiation, respectively. Pseudo-first-order model could be used to simulate the oxidation process in which the degradation rate coefficients were independent of the initial concentration of bisphenol A. Degradation rate could be greatly affected by the concentration of H2O2, and the optimum concentration for the system of solar/S-doped TiO2 was found to be 20 mg/L, which was 5 mg/L higher than that of solar/TiO2 system. Lower water pH favored the degradation of bisphenol A, whose degradation rate coefficients at pH 5.5 were about 50% higher than that at pH 8.5. Humic acids decreased both the degradation rate of the two processes, and the influence could be fitted by second-order equation. In addition, solar/S-doped TiO2 process was more easily affected, for the humic acids could not only compete with molecular bisphenol-A for radicals but also adsorb part of visible sunlight which can excite radical with TiO2.