Low consumption and portable technology for dithionite detection based on potassium ferricyanide differential spectrophotometry method in related advanced oxidation processes

Carbon neutrality has been received more attention and emerged in wastewater treatment processes. Due to the development of treating technologies with the rising of new-emerging pollutants, the coupled chemical processes also should remain current for the goal of carbon-neutral operation. Among of those updated strategies, several advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) based on dithionite (DTN, S₂O₄^2-), a common water treatment agent, have been established for refractory organic contaminations removal. However, in terms of DTN detection, the traditional formol-titration method has several application limits including the low detection sensitivity and high consumption of formaldehyde. In this study, compared with traditional method, a low energy consumption technology has been developed based on the potassium ferricyanide with the carbon consumption decreasing by about 5 times. Moreover, detection limit of DTN (mmol/L level) also was lower than the titration method. The method was established based on the fact that every 1 mol of DTN can react with 2 mol [Fe(CN)₆]^3- under alkaline condition. According to that potassium ferricyanide (K₃ [Fe(CN)₆]) has the maximum absorption at 419 nm wavelength, a fitting equation based on the linear relationship between the absorbance variation of K₃ [Fe(CN)₆] and DTN amount in the ranges of 0-30 μmol with the detection limit of 0.6 μmol was established with the determination coefficient of 0.99935. It was found that there was no obvious influence of the ubiquitous foreign species with the amount lower than 6 mM, 4 mM, 6 mM, 4 mM and 1 mg/L for Cl^-, HCO₃^-, NO₃^-, SO₄^2- and NOM, respectively. Moreover, methanol and tert-butanol were employed to verify the influence of the presence of organic matters on the determination of DTN and no impact was observed in this study. The proposed method provides a new way for DTN detection with stable and countable performance in the related AOPs with the low electric energy and carbon source consumption and high detection efficiency.

A Mechanistic Approach to the Influence of Surfactants on the Oxidation of Ethyl Mercaptan and its Dimer Ethyl Mercaptan Disulfide by Hexacyanoferrate(III) Ions in Aqueous Medium

In this paper we report on the rate of oxidation of ethyl mercaptan and its dimer ethyl mercaptan disulfide by alkaline hexacyanoferrate(III) along with its mechanistic pathway, spectrophotometrically. The influence of different experimental parameters, such as change in concentration of EtSH, HCF, OH− and reaction temperature was studdie. It was observed that the order of reaction decreases in [EtSH] or [OH−] from first order to higher concentration, but it certainly did not tend towards zero order. The effect of surfactants on the rate of reaction was observed at the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the surfactant and reported to be below the CMC. The investigators, thus, concluded that the added products have an insignificant effect on the reaction rate. Further, the activation parameters were evaluated which lend support to the proposed mechanism. The thermodynamic quantities were also determined and the binding parameters have also been evaluated using the Menger and Portnoy model.

Kinetic Study of the Formation of Ruhemann's Purple in Micellar and Microemulsion Phases

The reaction kinetics of ninhydrine (Nin) with glycine–glycine dipeptide (Gly) was studied in aqueous solution. The same reaction was studied in micellar solutions of different surfactants such as sodium dioctylsulfosuccinate (AOT) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). The reaction was also studied in the L2 microemulsion phase of the three systems AOT/heptane/water, SDS/pentanol/heptane/water, CTAB/pentanol/heptane/water. Spectrophotometric measurements were perfomed at 570 nm. The data show that the reaction is first-order with respect to Nin and Gly in all cases. Values of the observed rate constants (k obs) increase with increasing concentration of the surfactant in micellar media. AOT was more promotional than SDS. The reaction rate in the presence of different micelles could be explained using a pseudo-phase kinetic model. Association constants of Nin and Gly with surfactant micelles are reported. Values of k obs for the reaction rates in the microemulsion phases are reported. AOT/heptane L2 microemulsion system has been clearly found as the most promotional among all the other studied systems. Association constants of Nin and Gly with surfactant in microemulsion were obtained. The rate was increased with the temperature in aqueous, micellar and microemulsion phases. The activation parameters ΔH*, ΔS* and ΔG* have also been obtained. The reaction rate in different microemulsion media is slightly increased with the change of oil (heptane > hexane > pentane), while co-surfactants (butanol, pentanol and hexanol) have no effect on k obs values in AOT, CTAB or SDS microemulsion.

Reduction of Methylene Blue by Ascorbic Acid: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Aspects

This article reports the reduction of methylene blue (MB) by ascorbic acid (H2As) in basic aqueous and micellar solutions. Ascorbate ion (As2–) is found to be an effective reducing agent for the decolorization of methylene blue under ambient condition. Effects of salting-in and salting-out agents have been investigated for real-time application in the reduction process. The salting-in agent urea has been found to uniquely enhance the rate of the reduction of MB by As2– in the presence of micelles. Detailed kinetic and thermodynamic aspects have been considered to realize the interaction between methylene blue and ascorbate ion. Kinetic studies revealed that the reaction follows pseudo first order reaction kinetics.