Improving vacuum-UV (VUV) photolysis of organic compounds in water with a phosphor converted xenon excimer lamp emitting at 193 nm.

A novel vacuum ultraviolet excimer lamp emitting light at 193 nm was used to investigate the degradation of organic micropollutants in ultrapure water and wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent. Overall, light at 193 nm proved to be efficient to degrade the investigated micropollutants (diclofenac, diatrizoic acid, sulfamethoxazole). Experiments with WWTP effluent proved the ability of radiation at 193 nm to degrade micropollutants which are hardly removed with commonly used oxidation technologies like ozonation (diatrizoic acid, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, perfluorooctanoic acid, and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid).