Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Photoinduced Generation of Hydroxyl
Radical in Natural Waters
Khan M. G. Mostofa, Cong-qiang Liu, Hiroshi Sakugawa, Davide Vione,
Daisuke Minakata, M. Saquib and M. Abdul Mottaleb
1 Introduction
•
Hydroxyl radical (HO
) is a short-lived free radical, and it is the most potent
oxidizing transient among the reactive oxygen species. It is an effective, nonselec-
tive and strong oxidant that is ubiquitously formed in natural sunlit surface waters
(rivers, lakes and seawater and so on), rain, dew, cloud, fog, snow, aerosol, and in
all living organisms. The HO
•
is photolytically formed from a variety of sources in
natural waters. The first experimental report of a reaction that is now known to pro-
duce HO
•
dates back to Henry John Horstman Fenton, who described the oxidation
