Reactivity of Performic Acid with Organic and Inorganic Compounds: From Oxidation Kinetics to Reaction Pathways
type: Article
item type: journalArticle
is part of: ACS ES&T Water
  type: Journal
  volume: 3
  number: 9
  alternative: ACS EST Water
  identifier: DOI 10.1021/acsestwater.3c00279
publisher: American Chemical Society
authors: Person
  surname: Nabintu Kajoka
  given name: Christelle
authors: Person
  surname: Gasperi
  given name: Johnny
authors: Person
  surname: Brosillon
  given name: Stephan
authors: Person
  surname: Caupos
  given name: Emilie
authors: Person
  surname: Mebold
  given name: Emmanuelle
authors: Person
  surname: Oliveira
  given name: Marcos
authors: Person
  surname: Rocher
  given name: Vincent
authors: Person
  surname: Chebbo
  given name: Ghassan
authors: Person
  surname: Le Roux
  given name: Julien
abstract: Performic acid (PFA) has gained interest as an alternative chemical disinfectant for wastewater (WW) treatment, but its reactivity with WW constituents remains poorly understood. This study evaluated PFA’s ability to oxidize 45 inorganic and organic compounds commonly found in WW (amino acids, simple organic compounds with specific functional groups, e.g., amines and phenolic compounds, and pharmaceutical micropollutants). PFA does not react with most major ions, except for iodide ions, and reacts with iron(II) in the absence of phosphate buffer. While many organic molecules do not react with PFA, compounds containing reduced-sulfur moieties (e.g., thioether or thiol) are the most reactive (i.e., ranitidine, benzenethiol, and 3-mercaptophenol), followed by compounds with tertiary amine groups (e.g., lidocaine). The reactions follow second-order kinetics with respect to both organic compounds and PFA concentrations. Similar trends were observed in real WW effluents, although removals of pharmaceuticals were lower than expected due to the probable consumption of PFA by WW constituents (dissolved organic carbon, other micropollutants, or transition metals). The results highlight PFA’s selective reactivity with specific functional groups and a low transformation of compounds mostly through oxygen addition (e.g., S-oxide or sulfonyl compounds formed from thiol and thioether moieties and N-oxides from amine groups) with similar mechanisms to peracetic acid.
date: 2023-09-08
pages: 3121-3131
date submitted: 2023-09-10 09:36:43
short title: Reactivity of Performic Acid with Organic and Inorganic Compounds
library catalog: ACS Publications