Study of treatment of perfluoroctanoic acid (PFOA) at low concentration by sonochemical

Abstract

    Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is an organic compound that all the carbon-hydrogen bonds are replaced with carbon-fluorine ones. It is a persistent organic pollutant in wastewater because of its popular applications. Technologies for PFOA treatment have recently been developed. In this study, PFOA in low concentration was degraded by sonochemical treatment. The effects of the initial concentration of PFOA, pH values, also the NaHCO3 and isopropanol were investigated. The results showed that PFOA decomposition by ultrasound treatment only (750 W, 20 kHz) was 24% after 4 h reaction at PFOA 0.48 μM. Sonochemical treatment of PFOA showed the good result at pH = 6. Adding NaHCO3 can accelerate the decomposition efficiency of PFOA by sonochemical but isopropanol restricted NaHCO3 role in degrading PFOA.