Decomposition of 2-naphthol in water using a non-thermal plasma reactor.

We examd. the degrdn. of 2-naphthol in a pilot dielec. barrier discharge semi-continuously operated non-thermal plasma reactor. Plasma was generated in a quartz tube with the ambient air used as a feed gas for the reactor. The performance of the reactor was evaluated according to the ozone amt. produced both in the gas and liq. phase, as well as the overall decompn. efficiency of 2-naphthol. The decompn. kinetics, as well as the intermediary reactive products of 2-naphthol decompn. were detd. using the combination of high performance liq. chromatog. with UV detection (HPLC/UV), Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR), and gas chromatog./mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) analyses. The overall effectiveness of the process was established according to the degree of total org. carbon (TOC) mineralization, while toxicity tests were performed using Daphnia magna. Ozone prodn. (i.e., its concn. in the gas phase), ranged between 0.39 and 1.52 mg L-1 when varying the discharge power between 5-33 W. The decompn. efficiency of 2-naphthol reached 98.6% in 6 min at 33 W based on HPLC measurements. FTIR and GC/MS analyses revealed that degrdn. intermediates consisted mostly of oxygen functional group contg. compds., such as carboxylic acids. Based on the data reported here, we propose a novel dual stage org. wastewater decompn. reactor utilizing excess renewable electricity. [on SciFinder(R)]