Paracetamol (PCM) is extensively used for the treatment of various diseases and is frequently released into aquatic environments, resulting in considerable environmental concerns. In the current study, UV, UV/H 2 O 2, and photo‐Fenton approaches were applied for the degradation of PCM. The removal of PCM (10 mg/L) was achieved to be 11. 2% by UV alone, after 60 min of irradiation. However, the UV/H 2 O 2 system degraded 91. 4% of PCM after 60 min at pH 6. 0, demonstrating that the combination of UV and H 2 O 2 (5 mM) significantly improved the removal efficiency of PCM. Moreover, the addition of Fe 2+ (1 mg/L) to the UV/H 2 O 2 system further enhanced the degradation of PCM, obtaining 100% removal at pH 3 after 45 min of reaction. The UV/H 2 O 2 process showed higher efficiency at 6. 0 than at pH 3. 0 and 11. 0, as evident by the respective k obs values of 0. 0331, 0. 0437, and 0. 0279 min −1. However, compared to pH 6. 0, the UV/H 2 O 2 /Fe 2+ process showed greater reactivity at pH 3. 0. Additionally, nitrate, chloride, bicarbonate, and carbonate ions slightly impeded the removal of PCM in both processes. Furthermore, the TOC removal for UV/H₂O₂ and photo‐Fenton techniques was measured to be 65. 3 and 83. 5%, respectively, after 180 min. In addition, the total cost for the UV/H 2 O 2 process for one order removal (90% removal) of PCM was calculated to be 1. 43 m −3. Moreover, two degradation products (DPs) of PCM were identified using GC/MS analysis. The computational investigation was performed for toxicological measurements of identified DPs. The current work showed that PCM could be effectively degraded and mineralized using both UV/H 2 O 2 and photo‐Fenton techniques.
Akbar et al. (Thu,) studied this question.