CHEMODEGRADABILITY OF LINEAR ALKYLBENZENESULFONATES BY CHEMICAL
OXIDANTS

Lee, Hwan; Lee, Youn-jin; Kim, Hea-tae; Nam, Sang-ho

Environmental Engineering Research 2000;5(1): 41-46.

CHEMODEGRADABILITY OF LINEAR ALKYLBENZENESULFONATES BY CHEMICAL OXIDANTS

Hwan Lee¹^†, Youn-jin Lee², Hea-tae Kim³, and Sang-ho Nam²

¹Department of Environmental Engineering, Institute of Engineering & Construction Technology, Samsung Corporation
²Department of Environmental Engineering, Konkuk University
³R&D Divison, Korea Resources Recovery and Reutilization Corporation

Corresponding Author: Hwan Lee ,

Received: February 16, 2000; Accepted: March 10, 2000.

ABSTRACT

LAS (linear alkylbenzenesulfonates) which is widely used in industrial cleaners as well as commercial detergents can be easily switched to the toxic substances in aquatic system since SPAs (sulfophenylalkanoates) are formed during a> -and /? -oxidation of LAS. Furthermore they can be converted to more harmful by-products in combination with aquatic compounds. This study aimed to compare the chemodegradability of LAS by some chemical oxidants. Cleavage rate of benzene rings of LAS by free chlorine and hydrogen peroxide were not more than about 7.7% and 18.4% after 240 hours of reaction. However ozone was far better than above two oxidants because it showed 48.9 % of cleavage rate. Also, the degradation routes of LAS could be presumed by estimating the degree of aromatic ring cleavage and converting from LAS to SPAs as follows; The degradation of LAS by chlorine or hydrogen peroxide is more governed by oxidation of terminal part - methyl group of alkyl chains - than other parts of SPAs. On the other hand, in the chemodegradation of LAS by strong oxidants such as ozone and Fenton's Reagent, the degradation of terminal part of alkyl group and the cleavage of benzene ring occurred simultaneously.