Comparative study on the photocatalytic mineralization of homologous aliphatic acids and alcohols

The photocatalytic mineralization of methanol, ethanol and 1-propanol is compared with those of their homologous carboxylic acids (formic, acetic and propanoic). The presence of S 2O 8 2− ions almost does not affect the alcohols mineralization. But, those of the acids are slowed down. In addition to this, adding H 2O 2 inhibits the alcohols mineralization and those of the acids, but to a lesser extent. FT-IR studies have shown that carboxylates generated from the oxidation of the corresponding alcohols adsorb at different centres from those where carboxylates directly generated from formic, acetic and propanoic acids do. From the obtained results, mineralizations of these compounds have been correlated with their proximity and accessibility to photoactive centres.