ABSTRACT

The hazardous nature of polychlorinated and polybrominated dibenzofurans has given rise to several methods to degrade them to less environmentally harmful products. This chapter utilizes 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran (DPBF) as a model compound, since it strongly absorbs in the visible and is photochemically reactive in solutions and on surfaces. It describes the mechanistic and kinetic details of DPBF photodegradation on aluminum oxide, Titanium dioxide, and Zinc oxide surfaces. However, little effort has been made so far to study the influence of the support material on the photochemical degradation of the adsorbed substrate. The colored substrate itself acts as a sensitizer and initiates its own degradation. The advantage of this process is the utilization of visible light for degrading colored pollutants. Although DPBF itself is not a major chemical pollutant, the study of furan photochemistry on oxide surfaces can yield valuable information regarding the degradation of other colored pollutants with visible light.