Photocatalytic and photo-Fenton-like degradation of methylparaben on monolith-supported perovskite-type catalysts

Methylparaben was degraded in the presence of ABO(3) perovskite catalysts (A: La, Bi, and B: Ti-Fe, Fe) synthesized on a monolithic structure using the sol-gel method. The catalysts were characterized by BET, SEM, XRD, and FTIR. The highest degradation was observed using BiFeO3 on the monolithic structure. The methylparaben degradation and iron leaching were 82.8% and 0.06 ppm, respectively, under the optimum conditions, which were pH=7, [H2O2](0)=0.5 mM, and 0.1 g/L BiFeO3 loading. The toxicity tests were carried out by cress seeds and 1.09% inhibition was observed. Methylparaben degradation followed the second-order reaction kinetics, whereas the activation energy was 54 kJ/mol.