Aqueous chemical bleaching of 4-nitrophenol brown carbon by hydroxyl radicals; products, mechanism and light absorptivity

The reaction of hydroxyl radicals (OH) with 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) in the aqueous solution was investigated at pH = 2 and 9. As a result, the molar yield of the phenolic products was measured to be 0.20 ± 0.05 at pH = 2 and 0.40 ± 0.1 at pH = 9. The yield of 4-nitrocatechol (4-NC) was higher at pH = 9; at the same time, a lower number of phenolic products was observed due to the hydrolysis and other irreversible reactions at pH > 7. Mineralization investigated with total organic carbon (TOC) technique showed that after 4-NP was completely consumed approx. 85 % of the organic carbon remained in the aqueous solution. Hence, up to 65 % of the organic carbon that remained in the aqueous solution accounted for the open-ring non-phenolic products. The light absorptivity of the reaction solution between 250 and 600 nm decreased as a result of OH reaction with 4-NP. At the same time, 4-NP solution showed some resistance to chemical bleaching due to the formation of the light-absorbing by-products. This phenomenon effectively prolongs the time-scale of chemical bleaching or 4-NP via reaction with OH by a factor of 3–1.5 at pH 2 and 9, respectively. The experimental data acquired indicated that both photolysis and reaction with OH can be important removal processes of the atmospheric brown-carbon from the aqueous particles containing 4-NP.