Sunlight photocatalytic degradation of dimethyl phthalate

A degradation route using a combination of a nitrite and a ferric salt as the photocatalyst is presented for catalytically removing dimethyl phthalate (DMP) in water under natural environmental conditions. Typically, a 15 mL mixture solution containing DMP (20 mg/L), FeCl
₃
and NaNO
₂
(the mole ratio was 1:0.8:0.1) was irradatied by sunlight. After 4 day reaction, 100.0 % of DMP was degraded, and the moval of COD is up to 82.8%. The degradation system demonstrated that FeCl
₃
/NaNO
₂
is an efficient photocatalyst which is active on natural light irradiation.