Abstract

Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), a type of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), is an environmentally persistent and highly stable organic pollutant. Both the industrial use of PFOA prior to the early 2000’s and ineffective water treatments for PFAS have resulted in the contamination of drinking water sources. Photocatalysis is a diverse degradation method utilizing light for the formation of reactive oxidative species capable of targeting and breaking PFOA’s C-C and C-F bonds. Titanium Dioxide, TiO, is an abundant photocatalyst with three crystalline polymorphs: anatase, rutile, and brookite. Due to the previous difficulty in synthesis, brookite has less research in photocatalytic applications. Smaller size and greater surface area of TiO nanoparticles (NPs) can increase photocatalytic lifespan as well as rate of degradation. Commercially purchased and synthesized TiO NPs differ in size and homogeneity, therefore a comparison study was conducted to determine their variation in PFOA degradation. Purchased brookite with a degradation of PFOA at 44% out-performed synthesized brookite samples made from an older synthetic route. The synthesized brookite thermally treated for 24 hours also had a promising degradation value of 29%. A newer method of hydrothermal synthesis resulted in particles with unique shape and size distribution that show promise for degradation.

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