Effect of reductive property of activated carbon on total organic halogen analysis

Total organic halogen (TOX) is a collective parameter and a toxicity indicator for all the halogenated organic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in a water sample. TOX can be measured with the adsorption-pyrolysis method based on Standard Method 5320B. This method involves concentration of organic halogens from water by adsorption onto activated carbon (AC) and removal of inorganic halides present on the AC by competitive displacement by nitrate ions. Since AC can also act as a reductant, this work studied whether the reduction of chlorinated DBPs by AC occurs during the TOX measurement, to what extent the reduction affects the measurement of TOX, what type of chlorinated DBPs can be reduced by AC, and whether the method for the TOX measurement can be improved. Initially, chlorinated Suwannee River fulvic acid samples were prepared and pretreated with precipitation/dialysis/ultrafiltration to minimize the chloride levels in the samples. It was found that the fractions of TOX in the precipitated, dialyzed, and ultrafiltered samples that were reduced by AC in 5 min were around 13%, 20% and 24%, respectively. The formation of some N-chloroamino compounds and their reactivity with AC were examined. The results indicate that organic chloramines are one type of DBPs in TOX that could be reduced by AC. It was demonstrated that slight oxidation of AC with ozone basically inhibited its reduction for TOX and meanwhile maintained its adsorption capacity for TOX.