Impact of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) intensity on the performance of VUV irradiation for the mineralization of trimethoprim in neutral media: Kinetics, mechanisms, and by-products formation

A comparative study on the mineralization of antibiotic trimethoprim (TMP) in neutral medium was investigated by applying irradiation with five types of ultraviolet lamps. Among these lamps, the whole envelope of one lamp contained ordinary quartz, which could only transmit ultraviolet-C (UVC) light. For the other four lamps, approximately one tenth, a quarter, a half, and full of envelopes were comprised of high-purity synthetic quartz, which can transmit both vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and UVC light. TMP decay was well fitted to pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics and occurred more quickly as the VUV intensity increased. Poor mineralization was achieved in the absence of VUV light, whereas the mineralization efficiency was also enhanced with increasing VUV intensity. The presence of hydroxyl radicals ( • OH), superoxide radicals (O 2 •− ) and singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) during VUV photolysis of water was confirmed by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) analysis. Appropriate radical quenching experiments and fluorescent molecular probe detection provided the evidence that • OH played a significant role in TMP mineralization. Higher VUV intensity favored the generation of H 2 O 2 and • OH. The evolution of NH 4 + and NO 3 − as well as carboxylic acids (formic, acetic, oxalic, and oxamic acids) released in the treated solution were quantified. Ten aromatic intermediates were also identified by UPLC-QTOF-MS. Thereby, a plausible reaction sequence for TMP mineralization in VUV/UVC photolysis was finally proposed. Graphical Abstract