Degradation of Nonylphenol Ethoxylate-10 (NPE-10) by Mediated Electrochemical Oxidation (MEO) Technology

Nonylphenol ethoxylate (NPE-10) is a non-ionic surfactant that is synthesized from alkylphenol ethoxylate. The accumulation of NPE-10 in wastewater will endanger the ecosystem as well as the human being. Nowadays, NPE-10 can be degraded indirectly by using an electrochemical treatment by the advancement of technology. Thus, this study is aimed to evaluate the electro-degradation potential of NPE-10 by MEO using Ce(IV) ionic mediator. In addition, the influence of Ag(I) ionic catalyst in the performance of MEO for the degradation of NPE-10 was also observed. The potency of MEO technology in the NPE-10 degradation was evaluated by voltammetry technique and confirmed by titrimetry and LC-MS analysis. The results showed that in the absence of Ag(I) ionic catalyst, the degradation of NPE-10 by MEO was 85.93%. Furthermore, when the Ag(I) ionic catalyst was applied, the performance of MEO in degradation of NPE-10 was improved to 95.12%. The back titration using Ba(OH)2 confirmed the formation of CO2 by 46.79%, whereas the redox titration shows the total of degradation organic compounds by 42.50%. It was emphasized by the formation of two new peaks in the LC-MS chromatogram. In summary, our results confirmed the potential of MEO technology for the NPE-10 degradation.

Carbon nanotube modified glassy carbon electrode for electrochemical oxidation of alkylphenol ethoxylate

Electrochemical oxidation of an emerging pollutant, 2-(4-methylphenoxy)ethanol (MPET), from water has been studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Multiwall carbon nanotubes glassy carbon electrodes (MWCNT-GCE) were used as working electrode due to their extraordinary properties. The oxidation process is irreversible, since no reduction peaks were observed in the reverse scan. The electrocatalytic effect of MWCNT was confirmed as the oxidation peak intensity increases in comparison to bare-GCE. The effect of functional groups on MWCNT was also studied by MWCNT functionalized with NH2 (MWCNT-NH2) and COOH (MWCNT-COOH) groups. The oxidation peak current decreases in the following order: MWCNT > MWCNT-NH2 > MWCNT-COOH. Taking into account the normalized peak current, MWCNT-NH2 exhibits the best results due to its strong interaction with MPET. Under optimal conditions (pH = 5.0 and volume of MWCNT = 10 μL), degradation was studied for MWCNT-GCE and MWCNT-NH2-GCE. A complete MPET removal was observed using MWCNT-GCE after four CV cycles, for a volume/area (V/A) ratio equal to 19. In the case of MWCNT-NH2-GCE, the maximum MPET removal was close to 90% for V/A = 37, higher than that obtained for MWCNT-GCE at the same conditions (≈80%). In both cases, no organic by-products were detected.

Ultrasound-assisted cloud point extraction coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for the determination of lead and cadmium in water samples

A new method based on ultrasound-assisted cloud point extraction (UA-CPE) using the mixture of non-ionic surfactant alkylphenol ethoxylate NP-7 and alkylphenol ethoxylate NP-9 for the preconcentration of trace amounts of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in water samples prior to determination by FAAS has been developed.