Exploring the Role of pH and Solar Light-Driven Decontamination with Singlet Oxygen in Removing Emerging Pollutants from Agri-Food Effluents: The Case of Acetamiprid

Previously synthesized and tested water-dispersible photoactive polymeric microparticles have been employed as heterogenous photosensitizers to evaluate their performance in generating singlet oxygen through direct solar irradiation. This study utilizes these photocatalysts for the degradation of Acetamiprid in IWWTP wastewater effluents from an Agri-food industry, exploring, in addition to direct or simulated solar irradiation, the influence of pH on the photooxidation process. Over a thousand Emerging Pollutants, including pesticides like Acetamiprid, have been detected in aquatic environments in recent years, posing challenges due to the limitations of current wastewater treatment technologies. The developed method is particularly effective under basic or slightly basic conditions, aligning with the natural pH of wastewater and addressing a limitation of conventional Acetamiprid degradation methods, which typically require medium acidification to be effective. Polymers P3 and P4 exhibited high photocatalytic activity, achieving over 99% degradation of Acetamiprid through oxidation via singlet oxygen generated by Rose Bengal supported on the polymer matrix, while maintaining catalytic efficiency across multiple cycles The results confirm that Acetamiprid removal from industrial wastewater via direct solar irradiation is feasible, though constrained by the availability of sufficient effective sunlight hours.