title: TAML activator/peroxide-catalyzed facile oxidative degradation of the persistent explosives trinitrotoluene and trinitrobenzene in micellar solutions.
abstract: TAML activators are well-known for their ability to activate hydrogen peroxide to oxidize persistent pollutants in water. The trinitroaromatic explosives, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 1,3,5-trinitrobenzene (TNB), are often encountered together as persistent, toxic pollutants. Here we show that an aggressive TAML activator with peroxides boosts the effectiveness of the known surfactant/base promoted breakdown of TNT and transforms the surfactant induced nondestructive binding of base to TNB into an extensive multistep degradation process. Treatment of basic cationic surfactant solutions of either TNT or TNB with TAML/peroxide (hydrogen peroxide and tert-butylhydroperoxide, TBHP) gave complete pollutant removal for both in <1 h with >75% of the nitrogen and ≥20% of the carbon converted to nitrite/nitrate and formate, respectively. For TNT, the TAML advantage is to advance the process toward mineralization. Basic surfactant solutions of TNB gave the colored solutions typical of known Meisenheimer complexes which did not progress to degradation products over many hours. However with added TAML activator, the color was bleached quickly and the TNB starting compound was degraded extensively toward minerals within an hour. A slower surfactant-free TAML activator/peroxide process also degrades TNT/TNB effectively. Thus, TAML/peroxide amplification effectively advances TNT and TNB water treatment giving reason to explore the environmental applicability of the approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University , Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, United States.
authors.forename: Soumen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kundu
authors.forename: Arani
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chanda
authors.forename: Sushil K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Khetan
authors.forename: Alexander D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Ryabov
authors.forename: Terrence J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Collins
mesh_terms: D002384:Catalysis; D053834:Explosive Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008823:Micelles; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010545:Peroxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D012996:Solutions; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D014301:Trinitrobenzenes / Q000737:chemistry*; D014303:Trinitrotoluene / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D053834:Explosive Agents; D008823:Micelles; D010545:Peroxides; D012996:Solutions; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D014301:Trinitrobenzenes; D014303:Trinitrotoluene; C029222:sym-trinitrobenzene