Study on the factors influencing phenol degradation in water by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD)

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is an effective method to produce active species including ozone for remediation of pollutants in water, gas, etc. In the present work, a DBD type surface discharge system was utilised to degrade phenol in solutions. The influence of experimental conditions including solution pH values, initial concentration of phenol and applied voltage on the degradation rate of phenol, the removal of COD and the byproducts was examined and discussed as well as the concentration change of ozone during phenol was examined. Experimental results reveal that high pH value advanced the degradation of phenol and COD removal, which maybe contributed to the enhanced generation of hydroxyl radicals under higher pH value; applied voltage influenced the transformation of phenol to byproducts which could be demonstrated by the different COD removal under different applied voltages. Under an optimization condition, the degradation rate of phenol reached 100% in 80 minutes and COD removal reached 68% in 120 minutes.