Alexandra Naka, "Degradation of nicotine using sodium persulfate activated with solar radiation", Diploma Work, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece, 2022
https://doi.org/10.26233/heallink.tuc.93717
Nicotine is a toxic alkaloid found in large quantities in tobacco leaves but also in other plants such as the Solanaceae and Camelia Sinensis category. As an important emerging contaminant, it is detected in large concentration in the aquatic system with its main sources of inflow deriving from human urination waste as long as the flushing washout from the disposal of tobacco products. Environmental pollution that is caused from emerging contaminant need particular attention justifying as to why the development of technical Advanced Oxidation Processes, based on activated persulfate, has a wide range of environmental matter in the deconstruction of those pollutants. Given the above, the following dissertation studies the indirect degradation of nicotine using sodium persulfate, which is activated from solar radiation, in simplified but also complicated environmental matrices. From the quantitative chemical analysis, of this dissertation, High Performance Liquid Chromatography along with Mass Spectometry were used respectively. Firstly, the effect of solar radiation was studied in the indirect degradation of this alkaloid in ultra-pure water and the maximum dose of oxidizing agents was detected, with the rhythm of the reaction to be following the kinetic of pseudo-first order. Secondly, various environmental factors have been in the subject of study that could possibly influence the downgrade of organic compounds. The kinetic, of this indirect photodegradation, is showing to be not only directly dependent from the solution pH but also recording higher speeds in an alkaloid range. The solution 3.5% NaCl, did not appear to affect the reaction, in contrast with the Humid Acids, that are slightly slowing it down and the 100 mg L-1 of Butanol have shown to solely suspend the degradation of this pollutant, binding the dominant reactive radicals of SPS. Finally, from the natural aquatic systems that were studied, only rainwater seemed to supress the degradation of nicotine due to its acidic pH, whereas the rest of environmental matrices show excellent results towards the photodegradation of nicotine, verifying the significance of indirect photolysis to the sunny surface water and wastewater.