Comparative study of the formation of brominated disinfection byproducts in UV/persulfate and UV/H2O2 oxidation processes in the presence of bromide.

The objective of this research was to compare the transformation of Br- and formation of brominated byproducts in UV/persulfate (PS) and UV/H2O2 processes. It was revealed that Br- was efficiently transformed to free bromine which reacted with humic acid (HA) or dihydroxybenzoic acid resulting in the formation of brominated byproducts such as bromoacetic acids (BAAs) in UV/PS system. In contrast, no free bromine and brominated byproducts could be detected in UV/H2O2 system, although the oxidization of Br- was evident. We presumed that the oxidation of Br- by hydroxyl radicals led to the formation of bromine radicals. However, the bromine radical species could be immediately reduced back to Br- by H2O2 before coupling to each other to form free bromine, which explains the undetection of free bromine and BAAs in UV/H2O2. In addition to free bromine, we found that the phenolic functionalities in HA molecules, which served as the principal reactive sites for free chlorine attack, could be in situ generated when HA was exposed to free radicals. This study demonstrates that UV/H2O2 is more suitable than UV/PS for the treatment of environmental matrices containing Br-. Graphical abstract Graphical abstract.